by Ruthy Kirwan
It seems you can’t turn on the TV, TikTok, or news app these days without hearing about AI, or Artificial Intelligence. From vacation planning to marketing, people are using AI to compile and disassemble information like never before.
AI chatbot platforms work like little robot assistants; you tell it what you need by giving it a specific prompt, and the AI scans the internet in seconds, coming back with remarkable human-like communication to share what it found.
Since I spend a not-insignificant amount of my time thinking about my weekly meal plans, planning recipes, checking ingredients and so forth, I wondered if I could harness the power of AI and have a chatbot develop a meal plan for me.
Because the truth is, the mental effort it takes to make these meal plans is usually the hardest part of all. When my time is already at a premium, creating a meal plan from scratch each week can feel daunting.
There are so many things to consider when writing an effective meal plan:
- What ingredients are currently in our fridge?
- What’s our schedule like this week?
- What are we in the mood to eat?
- Which of my kids is going to randomly reject a meal I’ve cooked this week? (that’s always a fun one)
Ws it possible to feed an AI chatbot my weekly meal plan needs, and let it do the heavy lifting for me?
Spoiler alert – not only is it totally possible to have AI generate your meal plan, but it does it well.
Use AI to Create Your Meal Plan, Step by Step
1. Choose an AI platform
There’s plenty of AI platforms to choose from. Some of the platforms I recommend are Google Gemini, Poe, and Chatsonic.
To show you how I use AI to generate a meal plan, I’ll show you how it woriks with one of the OG platforms, ChatGPT.
2. Decide what your end goal is
Do you need to lose weight? Just get something quick on the table? Need something you’re confident the kids will eat?
Define your goals and keep them in mind when writing your AI prompt.
My goals for this week:
It’s a busy week for us with afterschool activities and work schedules, so I need quick recipes or crock pot recipes that are easy to throw together.
3. Think about any limitations
“Limitations” can mean an early soccer game on Thursday so you need a crockpot meal to come home to. Or you’ve got chicken in the fridge that has three days before it’s going to go bad. Or maybe you and your husband plan to eat spicy chili one night, so you want to make easy quesadillas for your heat-averse children.
Our limitations for this week:
- We’ve got a ballet recital Sunday we won’t be home for, and will grab some dinner at a restaurant after.
- My husband is working late Thursday night, so I just have to plan for the kids and I.
- I’ve got a pound of chicken thighs that have maybe three days left before they go bad.
4. Decide how many and what kind of recipes you’re looking for.
I usually only plan about 4-5 days worth of dinners when I meal plan. I keep one day reserved for takeout, and another for leftovers. I find it makes it easier to roll with the punches when I do it that way.
This is where an AI-generated meal plan can really save the day. It doesn’t just come up with recipes for a meal plan and a grocery list, but by being specific with your prompts, it can be 100% tailored to whatever your situation looks like that week.
How many recipes I need this week:
- One of the nights will be a takeout/delivery night
- One of those nights -the night my husband works late- I’ll feed the kids a frozen meal and have girl dinner for myself (we’ve all been there)
- One night is leftovers
- One night is the ballet recital, so that’s a restaurant meal
That leaves me only needing three real recipes this week.
5. Add a little bit of… ~*spice*~
AI platforms create your meal plan by scouring the web, which means they have the capacity to find those oddball recipes you would never have stumbled upon yourself.
It can give you different, new recipes inspired just by what you add to your prompt.
It’s like the slot machine of recipes… You put in the quarter (write a prompt) and the AI platform spins you a fun lil meal plan to try!
Watch how I create a prompt for my AI-generated meal plan:
Here are some of the top AI assistants and apps that can help with meal planning:
- Mealime – This app builds custom meal plans based on your food preferences, nutritional needs, and diet. It also generates grocery lists and cooking instructions.
- PlantJammer – This AI assistant invents recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand. You can specify flavors, cuisines, nutrition goals, and intolerances. It’s great for using up what’s already in your fridge/pantry.
- MealBoard – Snap a photo of what’s in your fridge and MealBoard will suggest recipes. It tailors recipes to items you need to use up soon and can coordinate a week’s worth of meals.
- SideChef – Tell SideChef how many people you’re cooking for along with diet and food restrictions and it will craft meal plans. You can customize the exact number of meals and recalculate each week. Still in Beta- click the link to join the waitlist
The great thing is all these AI assistants continue to learn your tastes and preferences to further customize and recommend new meal plans over time. They can save so much planning effort!
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Category: Blog, Meal Planning, Meal Prep
About Ruthy Kirwan
Ruthy Kirwan is a recipe tester and developer living in NYC with her two small kids and hard-working husband. She created Percolate Kitchen in 2016 to help busy people get their act together in the kitchen. Learn more at percolatekitchen.com/about
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