He likes green beans, but not peas. She hates beets, but loves dates. Their son is lactose intolerant but can tolerate (and loves!) parmesan cheese. Does this sound familiar?
Families are truly unique, and their eating preferences vary widely. A standard form, checklist or even Google search doesn’t often account for these nuances.
AI has opened up a new opportunity to address these unique traits creating infinitely customizable options. Chat GPT can act as an assistant helping you to find new, personalized dinner recipes instantly.
Here’s what to consider:
Try a few prompts to warm up
Chat GPT is an advanced language model, capable of understanding and generating human-like text. Employed in a chatbot format, this AI model can carry on a conversation with you, understand your taste preferences, dietary restrictions, and more.
If you’re inexperienced in using Chat GPT or another chat-based AI interface, here are a few pointers to getting started:
- Be clear and specific in your request. Instead of asking it for dinner recipes, give it some context: “I need a quick weeknight dinner recipe for my family of two adults and four kids. We don’t eat a lot of red meat. We like Mediterranean, Italian and Asian cuisines.”
- Share examples. Let GPT know what you like and tend to cook often and then ask it for similar recipes. For example: “One of our favorite meals is a ground chicken larb from Bon Appetit. Can you recommend a recipe with similar flavors.”
- Respond with specifics. If you don’t get the response you intended, respond with more specific feedback to guide GPT to the answer you’re looking for. For example: “That dish is very similar to ground chicken larb. Can you recommend something more unique that has similar flavors?”
Don’t be afraid to revise your dinner recipe
The power of AI is in its personalization. If the recipe suggestion you received doesn’t quite match your family’s preferences, provide feedback. Offer specific detail, like portion sizes or how to substitute a specific ingredient, and GPT will respond with an update.
Ask for a grocery list
Once you’ve found a recipe you like, ask GPT to provide a grocery list for you for the ingredients you need. Then you can copy and paste the list directly into your Notes app, text message or any other tool you’re using to manage your groceries.
Take time to double check
Chat GPT is not purpose-built for recipes, and can make mistakes. A quick way to verify the accuracy of your list is to ask GPT to double check itself. This is especially handy when you want to ensure your grocery list is accurate. GPT can identify its own mistakes and update a fresh list instantly.
Try out AI tools built specifically for meal planning
Open AI has created an incredibly powerful tool with Chat GPT that can serve many needs, however, it is not purpose-built for recipes and requires new prompting and conversation with each interaction.
At Ollie, we are building a meal planning assistant that combines the personalization of AI with a best-in-class user experience to truly take the work of researching and planning meals off your plate. Planning healthy family dinners that cater to everyone’s needs and schedule is hard work. With Ollie, our goal is to make planning dinners effortless so you can enjoy your time on what matters most.
Ollie will get to know your family’s favorite meals, your family’s likes and dislikes, how often you’d like to cook new recipes, and will provide accurate and organized grocery lists ready to take to the store.
We are in development on Ollie right now and will be releasing it soon. If you’d like to be among the first to know, join the waitlist here.
