Gemini: Meals & Cooking

Plan four family dinners from fridge and pantry photos and save about $150 with Gemini

Amanda Caswell, a mom of three writing for Tom's Guide, kept buying food the family already had. Caswell photographed the fridge, freezer and pantry, uploaded the photos to Gemini (using the Nano Banana 2 image model) and asked for meals made from what was there, plus the cheapest items to buy. Gemini spotted lean ground sirloin, frozen broccoli, chicken, black beans and spaghetti, and built a 4-day plan: beef and bean pasta, a cheesy chicken and broccoli bake, an everything frittata and burrito bowls. Caswell estimates about $150 in savings compared with a usual weekly spend.

Cook a week of meals for one from ingredients about to spoil with a Gemini recipe for under $12

Daniel G. Taylor, who is single and wants to cook once for the week, had beef chunks near their use-by date, soft carrots, sprouting potatoes and half an onion. Taylor listed the ingredients for Gemini with the constraints: feed one person for multiple meals, use pantry staples and need minimal extra shopping. Gemini produced a beef and winter vegetable stew that cost under $12, will feed Taylor for five days and used up food that was heading for the bin.

Plan a week of less starch-heavy meals around local foods and budget with Gemini

Android Police's Irene Okpanachi, whose diet was mostly starch, asked Gemini to act as a nutrition coach, held its questions until a 'READY' safe word, and described habits, local foods and budget. After revisions to swap out foods that weren't affordable or easy to find, Gemini's plan moved most starch to lunch, kept breakfast and dinner lighter and more protein-forward, and set simple rules such as a fist-sized starch portion and eating vegetables and protein first.

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.

Plan gluten-free, braces-friendly family dinners and calendar invites with a Gemini Gem

A parent set up a custom Gemini Gem as a family 'chef' that knows their needs (gluten free, braces, under 30 minutes, few dishes, in-season produce, macros). It builds the meal plan and shopping list and creates daily calendar invites with the recipe that sync to their family calendar. They call it the most revolutionary AI use for them, though the lunch suggestions weren't a hit and still need refining.

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.

Turn a dinner idea into a Google Keep grocery checklist with Gemini

MakeUseOf's Saikat Basu asked Gemini, with the Keep connector, for a 'week of high-protein vegetarian dinners grocery list' for one person. Gemini created the checklist in Google Keep item by item; they say it was neatly organized, though it didn't group items by produce and pantry within the note.