ChatGPT: Meals & Cooking

Plan a week of family dinners for $3.06 a serving from a supermarket sale catalog with ChatGPT

Personal finance writer Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon wanted a seven-night dinner plan for a family of four using only ingredients on sale, that the kids would actually eat. Asking ChatGPT and Claude to read Woolworths' online specials pages didn't work; neither could do it accurately. So Pedersen-McKinnon downloaded the current Woolworths sales catalog, uploaded it to ChatGPT and, after a few goes at the wording, asked for recipes of up to eight ingredients, before-and-after prices, the value of leftover ingredients and a shopping list. The week's shop came to $106.85, a saving of $38.85, and the net cost was $3.06 a serving once leftovers were counted. Not every dish was a hit: one child declared 'Salmon is gross.'

Turn leftover holiday ham into a gluten-free fried rice with ChatGPT

After Christmas, Shasta Kearns Moore's household still had a lot of ham. Moore asked ChatGPT for healthy ideas without too many vegetables, since the people at home aren't big fans. The first five ideas didn't fit, because one eater is gluten-free and the family prefers Asian cooking, so Moore told it that. ChatGPT came back with new suggestions and, on request, a recipe for a simple fried rice dish that was 'a big hit.' Moore says it took seconds and saved 'time, money and a headache.'

Adjust a 1,200-calorie diabetes meal plan day to day with ChatGPT

Ankush Joshi has lived with type 2 diabetes since 2012 and used ChatGPT to build a 1,200-calorie, high-protein, high-fiber plan of four meals a day. When a day goes off plan, Joshi asks for quick changes, such as moving calories toward dinner or adding 20 g of protein without adding calories. After 2 laddoos and a small chakli at a festival, ChatGPT estimated the extra calories and suggested lighter swaps and a 45-minute walk. Joshi says it is less accurate for homemade, restaurant and festival food, and the rule stays: 'NEVER change medicines based on AI.'

Cook a first mutton curry with a ChatGPT recipe adapted to an induction hob and no ginger

skcv cooked mutton curry for the first time and says it was really delicious. Not confident cooking it for the first time, skcv asked ChatGPT for a recipe and instructions, writing the prompt around the setup at hand: the ingredients available, an induction cooktop and no ginger. The photos show the finished curry on an induction cooktop.

Plan a week of family meals and fill an HEB curbside cart with ChatGPT

Chris Spitzenberger wanted to eat healthier without being much of a cook. ChatGPT drew up a week of family meals, then added every ingredient to an HEB cart for curbside pickup using Computer Use. It also made a PDF of the weekly plan and emailed it to Spitzenberger's spouse. That evening Spitzenberger cooked the first meal from the plan.

Plan a nut-free family Christmas dinner that bakes in one oven at one temperature with ChatGPT

Stephanie M. Morrison was hosting family and asked ChatGPT for a menu with a list of criteria: easy, with some store-bought items and a few simple homemade dishes; dishes that could bake at the same time and temperature in a single oven; no nuts, red meat or anything spicy; traditional enough for a crowd; and something picky kids would try. From several options, Morrison chose roasted orange and cranberry chicken with roasted red potatoes with garlic and parmesan, plus store-bought rolls, salad and dessert. ChatGPT said what to start when so everything finished together, and gave a shopping list. It took 5 minutes, and Morrison says it worked perfectly and was a hit.

Cut a family's grocery spend from $400–$500 every few days to $140 a week with a ChatGPT meal plan

When Brooke Ferrier, a parent of two on the NSW Central Coast, and their partner both lost their jobs, Ferrier asked ChatGPT for a low-cost meal plan for two adults and two toddlers, then refined it with follow-ups: hidden vegetables, low-carb options and no lentils. ChatGPT gave one recipe per meal with variations for each person, compared supermarket prices and produced a categorised shopping list with quantities. A week of breakfasts, dinners and snacks came to $140, against the $400–$500 Ferrier had been spending every four or five days, with much less food thrown out. Ferrier also uses it to find recipes for long-forgotten pantry items.

Turn long recipe steps into an importable to-do list with a custom GPT so every Thanksgiving dish is on time

Amanda Parsons, who has adult ADHD, finds recipes pack too much into one step. While planning Thanksgiving, Parsons asked ChatGPT for help with the cooking schedule, then found it could turn recipes into CSV files for the Todoist to-do app; for the first time, dinner was ready on time and every dish made it to the table as planned. After a chaotic batch of English muffins without it, Parsons built a custom GPT to do the conversion, going through five rounds of tests over an hour until the CSV imported successfully.

Plan 15 family meals a week from a recipe library and make the shopping list with Grok Bot

After a decade of trying to automate meal planning (a spreadsheet, then a self-built app), the poster now has a custom Grok Bot that plans 15 meals a week for the family. It keeps a library of recipes as Markdown files, makes a printable weekly meal plan and produces a shopping list, which the poster pastes into ChatGPT to fill an Instacart order.

Cook and freeze a vegan red lentil and potato curry from a ChatGPT recipe

The poster asked ChatGPT for an authentic vegan Indian curry with potatoes, red lentils, coconut milk and tomatoes, followed the recipe with a few changes of their own (extra spices, red curry paste, ground cumin in place of seeds), and calls it the best Indian curry. They froze the leftovers in meal-prep containers with rice; the poster says they reheated well over several weeks and the family ate every one.

Work out a reverse-sear timeline for two prime rib roasts for 25 guests with ChatGPT

Hosting Friendsgiving for 25, the writer of the AI For Busy Parents newsletter couldn't find recipes for two roasts totalling 14 lb. They gave ChatGPT the weights, the reverse-sear temperatures and the 6 p.m. sit-down time, and in about two minutes got a timeline working backwards, from bringing the roasts to room temperature to pulling them at 120°F, a 500°F crust stage of 8–10 minutes and a final rest. The writer says they felt far more confident, though still a little nervous.

Build a family meal-prep system from fridge photos with weekly plans, one grocery list and cost per meal using ChatGPT and Codex

Cooking for a household with mixed needs (no red meat for one, extra protein for another, a baby, and occasional guests), Fei Jiang used GPT and Codex to build a 'Meal Prep OS'. It reads a fridge photo to see what's there and what should be used soon, builds a weekly plan with reused ingredients and a prep sequence, makes one consolidated grocery list to paste into a delivery app, and estimates nutrition and cost per meal and serving.

Recreate copycat Chick-fil-A nuggets with ChatGPT (it missed the breading)

Tom's Guide's Amanda Caswell asked ChatGPT for the closest possible homemade Chick-fil-A nuggets recipe and used ChatGPT Voice to guide them while cooking; it kept saying they were on track. After one bite they realized it had skipped the most important part, the breading: top-rated copycat recipes specify things like Ritz crackers, sugar and baking soda. With no time to restart at about 8:15 p.m., they turned the chicken into a makeshift chicken parmesan.

Build a biweekly grocery list on a $175 budget with Gemini

Tom's Guide's Elton Jones gave Gemini and ChatGPT the same prompt: a $175 biweekly grocery budget, the foods they usually buy, and a request for a categorized, priced table. Gemini said $175 over two weeks was realistic if they balanced splurges like steak and shrimp with rice and potatoes, and gave a table by category, item, quantity and estimated cost with a total. ChatGPT's similar chart added items they don't usually buy, like eggs and shredded cheese. They picked Gemini as the better financial adviser overall.

Turn a handwritten family pie recipe into an infographic with Gemini and ChatGPT (it garbled the recipe)

A TechRadar writer photographed their mother's 30-year-old handwritten apple pie recipe and asked Gemini and ChatGPT to turn it into a clear, cartoon-style infographic. Gemini's version was cute but full of misspellings and nonsense like 'Dash nutamon' and a cheese grater, and corrections didn't fix it; ChatGPT did marginally better but left out details. Claude gave the clearest, if plain, recreation. They called Gemini's first try unusable and kept their paper original.

Compare ChatGPT and Gemini for healthy meal ideas and a week of cheap lunches

Tom's Guide's Josh Render photographed chicken thighs, salad and avocados and asked ChatGPT and Gemini for a healthy meal with those ingredients, then asked each for a week of varied, healthy, low-cost lunches for losing weight. They preferred Gemini for both: it explained how to prepare the chicken beforehand and was more comprehensive, though wordier; ChatGPT's terser plan was easier to print and hang on the fridge.

Plan seven quick, healthy dinners for two with ChatGPT

CNET's tester asked ChatGPT for a seven-day plan of quick, healthy dinners for two people and a grocery list. All seven dinners could be cooked in under 45 minutes; ingredients came without measurements, and they tweaked seasoning and cooking order on some recipes. They say grocery shopping became easier and the couple wasted no food that week.

Plan a cheap, healthy week of meals for two with ChatGPT

Tom's Guide's Alex Hughes asked ChatGPT for a Monday-to-Friday plan for two in the UK, shopping at Sainsbury's, cheap, healthy and filling. After re-prompting for more interesting recipes, then less focus on calories and cost, they say it nailed the brief, with recipes and one ordered shopping list marking optional extras, though some recipes were a bit vague until refined. The whole process took about 10–15 minutes.

Plan a gluten-free week of Trader Joe's meals on $125 with ChatGPT

Outside's Julia Ries Wexler asked ChatGPT for a week of gluten-free meals and snacks, plus dog treats, with a Trader Joe's grocery list, item names and prices on a $125 budget. They say the plan was missing items needed for the recipes, prices were inaccurate and two items weren't in stock; their receipt came to $160, about $35 over budget.

Plan five days of meals and a $75 grocery list with ChatGPT

Delish's writer asked ChatGPT for Monday–Friday recipes (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) and a grocery list on a $75 budget with no tomatoes, peas or oats, then asked it to drop tofu. The list came to about $74.50, but they say it had them buy five items they didn't need, and by Wednesday the chicken-heavy meals felt repetitive; they decided the method wasn't for them.