A Recipe for AI Meal Planning
Welcome to the future! These instructions will help you get customized, family friendly meal plans and grocery lists from ChatGPT.
If it seems like a lot to take in, take a deep breath! We’ve found that following these steps, and religiously reminding ChatGPT what we want it to do, really helps to avoid boring bland meals and recipes that don’t work. Our recommendation: Read (or skim) through the overview, then use the templates at the bottom to speed up the process.
Overview:
1. Start with the general knowledge prompt.
This prompt instructs ChatGPT on what a meal is, tells it to role-play, and highlights the desired qualities in your recipes. Here’s what to say:
“Hello, you are a creative, a cook, a chef, a writer, a perfectionist, and a happy helper. You have 30 years of experience in recipe development. You know that a good dinner usually consists of a main, usually meat, and two side dishes.
(Note: You can also ask for a vegetarian main and two side dishes.)
2. Ask for a list of recipes. This will increase the variety in the recipes ChatGPT produces and let you home in on the ideas you like. Here is how you should structure your prompts when trying to generate a list of recipes:
Re-emphasize roleplay: “Act as a home chef with 30 years of experience in the kitchen…” “Acting as a creative recipe developer with 20 years experience …”
Be direct: “... write me a recipe for a dinner for a family of four.” “... write me a meal plan for dinner for 5 days for a family of four.”
Separate your thoughts: Each instruction should be in a separate, simple sentence. Some things you should include: Required ingredients, Dietary restrictions, Preferences, Time limitations (we recommend 45 minutes to get a flavorful dish), examples of the types of cuisines you like.
3. Select your recipes: Review the list of recipes ChatGPT created and choose one or several that look interesting. (If you don’t like any, you can ask it to generate alternatives.)
4. Ask ChatGPT to write the recipes: Repeat a version of the commands you already used to ask the bot for a list, but instead ask for a recipe for the specific meal(s) you selected. Here are the steps again:
Re-emphasize experience based roleplay to ChatGPT – “Acting as a cookbook author with 30 years experience in recipe development…”
Be direct. This is where you ask for the specific recipes. Example – “write a delicious Sesame Ginger Pork Lettuce Wraps recipe for my family of 4.” “write recipes for my meal plan for my family of 4. I want these three recipes: Tuscan Herb Grilled Chicken, Spiced Lentil and Vegetable Medley, Creamy Mushroom and Truffle Risotto.”
Separate your thoughts. This list of things is slightly different. No need to include types of cuisine. But you should still include: Required ingredients, Dietary restrictions, Preferences, Time limitations (45+ minutes), and quality. You also should include these new metrics:
“Give me detailed and measured recipes.”
If applicable: “Reuse ingredients across meals as possible so I don't have to buy as many things at the grocery store”
That’s it! You should have really good recipes now. If you need substitutions or want to tweak a recipe, just ask ChatGPT to make revisions.
General Meal Planning Template
Enter General Knowledge Prompt:
“Hello, you are a creative, a cook, a chef, a writer, a perfectionist, and a happy helper. You have 30 years of experience in recipe development. You know that a good dinner usually consists of a meat and two side dishes. (Note: You can also ask for a vegetarian main.)
Enter List Generation Prompt:
“So, with your 30 years experience in recipe development, create a list of 8 creative family dinner ideas for a family of [number in your family].
Its protein should be [...].
I have [...] at my disposal (although you don't have to use them).
The recipe must include [...].
One person in the family doesn’t eat [...].
Another person is allergic to [...].
The meals should be ready in [amount of time We recommend “45 minutes or less”].
Be inspired by cuisines like [example cuisines] (although the recipe does not have to be one of those -- think outside of the box).
Make sure the recipes are complex and flavorful, but still palatable for kids.”
Enter Recipe Generation Prompt:
“Acting as a cookbook author with 30 years experience in recipe development, write recipes for my family of [number in your family]. I want these three recipes: [chosen recipes names].
The recipe must include [...].
One person in the family doesn’t eat [...].
Another person is allergic to [...].
The meals should be ready in [amount of time We recommend 45 minutes or less].
Make sure the recipe is complex and flavorful, but still palatable for kids.
I need a well-thought out, measured recipe.
Consider Including: Reuse ingredients across meals as possible so I don't have to buy as many things at the grocery store.
Shopping List Generation and Ordering via Instacart:
If you have generated multiple recipes for meal planning, or you have found recipes online, you can also use ChatGPT to create shopping lists and to even order off of Instacart for you.
To do this, copy and paste all of the ingredients from the recipes you want to cook into one prompt and ask it to consolidate them.
Example – ”Could you provide a consolidated shopping list for these ingredient lists: [ingredient lists]”
If you want ChatGPT to create an Instacart cart for you to be delivered to your house, you must pay for ChatGPT Plus to get access to ChatGPT plugins. Once you are signed up, take your consolidated shopping list and follow these steps:
Hover over the ChatGPT 4 tab at the top of the chat window. Then click on the button labeled “plugin”:
Then click on the little arrow underneath the tabs, and make sure only the Instacart plug in is selected:
Ask ChatGPT to create an Instacart for a shopping list and paste your combined shopping list into the chat. Example – “Create an Instacart cart for this shopping list: [combined shopping list]”