Numbers 11-14

I was reading through the last two sections in Numbers that we have, and something wasn't making sense to me.  When the people complained about not having meat...weren't they shepherds??  Where did they get all the animals for sacrifices, but then had no meat to eat?  Weren't the priests in the temple provided for with meat when they did a wave offering (I believe the wave offering was symbolic of offering the meat to the Lord, and then He gave it back for the men to eat).  I know it wasn't just meat they were complaining about, they were whining because there wasn't much variety in what they ate.  So my confusion is really whether they had meat and were they just complaining because they were growing restless?  Is this why God reacted to harshly to them?