🥕 What's for supper this week?

A friend of mine, Larry, asked ChatGPT for an Asian-inspired supper using cabbage, tomatoes and chicken breast. He wanted no more than eight ingredients and nothing fussy. A few seconds later he had a recipe that sounded really good. So Larry asked where it came from, expecting the name of a website. The answer was: "I made it up."

This week is about seeing one small thing all the way through. Today that's planning a week of meals with ChatGPT, from the first question to a shopping list in your hand.

When I asked what you wanted from these Thursday emails, everyone who answered said the same thing: keep it everyday. This is about as everyday as it gets.

A registered dietitian at Mayo Clinic makes the case simply. Planning meals ahead saves time and money. She suggests each plate cover at least three food groups. She also suggests picking a few recipes for the week and leaning on leftovers so you aren't cooking from scratch every night. Her short guide is here.

The part most of us skip is the planning. It's fiddly: making a list, rearranging it, then working out what to buy. That fiddly part is exactly what ChatGPT is good at.

1. Tell it who you're cooking for, and what you've already got. Type something like:

"Plan five simple suppers for two people this week. We like chicken, pasta and soups. We don't eat fish. I already have a bag of rice, two cans of tomatoes and half a cabbage. One of us is watching salt. Keep each one under 40 minutes, and use leftovers for at least one night."

Change the details to fit your house. The more it knows, the better the list. If you eat a certain way for your health, say so plainly.

2. Change what you don't like. Don't start over. Just say:

"Swap Wednesday for something without beans."

It keeps everything else and fixes that one night.

3. Turn it into a shopping list. Type:

"Make this into one shopping list, grouped by grocery store aisle. Leave off salt, pepper, oil and flour. I already have those."

Then do the one step it can't: check your cupboard and cross off what you already have.

Remember Larry's recipe? That's worth knowing. When ChatGPT hands you a supper idea, it may not come from a tested cookbook. It may have just put it together on the spot. That's often fine, since plenty of good meals start that way. But read it through before you cook it. Do the amounts and the cooking time make sense to you? If something looks odd, ask it, or trust your own kitchen sense.

It only knows what you tell it, which is why step one matters. One thing it can't know is what's on sale at your store this week, so any prices it gives are guesses. And if you eat a certain way for a medical reason, like low salt, diabetes or kidney care, telling ChatGPT helps, but check the plan with your doctor or dietitian too. It can sound completely sure and still get amounts wrong. You're the cook here. It just does the list-making.

If you try it, "what's for supper" gets answered once for the whole week, with one trip to the store.

If you don't, nothing's lost. You'll cook the way you always have, and that's been working for a long time.

This week, try the three prompts in order, start to finish. Then take the list shopping and see how the week goes.

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If you try it, reply with one word: the first supper on your list. I'm curious what comes up.

Talk soon,
Bob

P.S. On Saturday I'll share something I built because of what you told me: the hard part isn't the doing, it's the choosing. It's a free tool that asks a few plain questions and suggests two or three ways of earning that might fit you. Nothing to buy, and your answers stay on your own screen.

A short story from my desk about the boring little tool that quietly runs this whole operation. No sales in it, just a look behind the curtain.

Here is an AI tool you do not have to learn – you simply talk, and Wispr Flow turns your words into clean, finished text in almost any app.

This link goes to my own review on my site, which includes my affiliate link. I use Wispr Flow myself every day. I am a slow typer who makes plenty of typos, and it saves me a great deal of time. There is a free version, and if you ever move to a paid plan through it, I may earn a small amount, at no extra cost to you.