Effortless Meal Planning with Chat GPT

The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 inspires us to provide for our families when we read…

She is like the merchant ships,
    bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.

I love going into my kitchen and stirring up good food, but sometimes coming up with a meal plan for the whole week is laborious. There are health issues to consider and also waistlines. I don’t want too many carbs, but plenty of protein. I want a variety of good foods, but nothing that takes forever to prepare. Oh the quandary!

There have been years in my past of sitting down with a treasured cookbook and flipping through to find new recipes to add, but oh, the time that took! Then a couple weeks ago my daughter told me she asked Chat GPT to create a menu for her! In a matter of seconds, she had a week’s worth of meals, complete with shopping list!

I was intrigued and decided I needed to check it out. I have been skeptical about using Chat GPT because I didn’t understand it. If you need an explanation, you can go here on Wikipedia for answers, but the short answer is that it is artificial intelligence that can search the web and give answers in a matter of seconds. It is a free app with the option of a paid version for deeper uses. I am using the free version and it’s been great.

I asked for a week’s menu that was heart healthy and Weight Watcher friendly. Here’s a little picture of a couple of the day’s menu plan:

You can have them tweak the menu once it’s created. For instance, they added tofu as an option, and I asked for a different protein. You could give specifics like, “we like to make pizza every Friday night,” or, “include Southern Living’s best recipes,” and it will add that per your suggestion. I was completely pleased and impressed with the help this was to me! I created my menu at the end of a busy week while we were traveling. I went into the grocery store as we got into town, with my Chat GPT grocery list on my phone and went home ready to cook for the week!

If you’re interested in trying this (and I would highly recommend it if you struggle with menu planning), just go to your browser and type in Chat GPT. If you set up an account, it will keep a history of your “chats” so you can access them. That’s how I was able to share my menu with you.

Being a wise, godly woman and providing for our families doesn’t have to include “bringing our food from afar!” With the Internet’s help, we can simplify parts of our lives to make room for areas where we really want to spend our time.

Have you tried Chat GPT? How has it helped you? Or are you afraid of trying it?

Refresh menu planning with some “techie help!”