Using Chat GPT to Meal Plan
Easy weeknight meal recipes plus a hack I'm going to start using for meal planning. Also what I watched this week and what I *didn't* buy on Prime day.
It’s already mid summer- how!? The kids just finished a week of art camp which left them so incredibly exhausted that they were absolute messes from 4-7pm, but then slept 12 hours which is a tradeoff I will take. It is hard when the afternoons and bedtimes feel so rushed though, and I hate it even more when I can’t figure out what to cook or when everyone hates what I make.
Cooking *used* to be something I really enjoyed. Then I had children. While I’ve been pretty lucky with my kids in that they mostly eat what I make, they of course go through picky phases where everything I make is “bisgusting” and more food ends up on the floor than in their bellies.
It’s also the mental load of it all. I’m a better cook than my husband so most of the meals default to me (shout out to Marley for making breakfast every day, though!) and I actually do prefer it that way. But just because I want to be the one to cook doesn’t mean it ALSO isn’t a huge pain in the ass to be the one in charge of deciding “what’s for dinner” every single night for forever.
I always notice that when I actually take a little time to PLAN our week’s meals and shop accordingly things are so much easier. I can’t tell you how many near-breakdowns I’ve had when the meal I’m thinking about is no longer viable because we are out of 90% of the ingredients for said meal. But planning and making grocery lists and shopping at 2-3 different stores also takes work! I love the idea of looking through all of my beautiful cookbooks to draw inspiration and craft a perfect meal plan, but…I can be honest with myself and say that this will likely not happen until my kids are teenagers.
So here is my new plan. I’m going to use technology for good. In this season of life, I choose to outsource. I choose to use modern conveniences and AI for my own benefit! This is what I’m thinking:
Use Chat GPT to create meal plans for the week, including a shopping list
I’ll keep it easy! Not every night needs to be a fancy meal. We recently bought a grill and it’s been so nice to just throw some marinated protein on, make a side of roasted veggies and rice, and call it a day!
When Marley or I can grocery shop- great! When the week is too crazy, we will use Instacart. I started having groceries delivered during Covid and honestly never went back. It’s SO convenient and relatively inexpensive (or free depending on store etc!).
I’ll plan to have groceries delivered on Sundays, so I can prep and put away the ingredients for the week.
We’ll plan to cook 4 nights per week. Usually on Fridays we order pizza for family movie night, and like to be flexible on the weekends to go out with friends or family or make something simple like pasta or leftovers.
*NAP TRAP TIP: Use the Nap Trap (if you’re contact napping or not!) to browse for recipes you want to try!
Here’s 2 examples of how you can use Chat GPT for planning your meals:
Option 1: Tell it exactly what you want and it will create a list of ideas for you plus a shopping list:
Option 2: Find recipes yourself, enter the links, and ask it to create a shopping list for you. Print out or save the recipes in your bookmarks on your phone to easily find when it’s the night you want to cook:
Pretty cool, right? By the way, here are the 4 recipes I’m going to be making this week!
Grilled Greek Chicken Thighs I made something similar this week and it was sooo good- the kids especially loved the homemade tzatziki sauce (I didn’t add mint) I made for the top which was really quick. I’ll make with a side of sweet potatoes or creamy orzo and some roasted broccoli.
I then asked ChatGPT to make a PDF of the shopping list for these recipes. Here you go!
I always love getting new recipe inspiration to mix things up. I gathered some great recipe ideas from you all over on IG this week so stay tuned for a FULL post here with lots more recipe ideas coming soon!
Here’s a Weekly Roundup of Things I’ve Watched, Read etc! 💫
I watched the premier of Real Housewives of OC and I’m sooooo excited for this season. Alexis is back baby!!!! This franchise was the first iteration of “Housewives” ever, and I remember watching it with my mom while I was still in high school. These unhinged, conservative women fighting on my screen act like a security blanket for me for some sick reason. If you want my thoughts on where to start with Bravo shows, plus hear from an *actual* Bravo insider, listen to this episode of NOTU with Caitlin Wilder! We talk a lot about non-Bravo stuff, too.
In Bravo- adjacent I also watched Hannah Berner’s comedy special, We Ride at Dawn on Netflix. I was really not a Hannah fan while she was on Summer House but I saw everyone talking about how funny it was! It was… okay. Definitely some funny parts! One thing that bothered me so much though, was this bit she kept doing where I swear she was copying the style of Becca from Tiktok (if you see my Sunday Tiktok roundups on my IG you know!). Did anyone else notice this? It drove me insane!
This week was Prime Day and I actually did fill a cart and then forgot to check out. So I’m taking that as a sign that I didn’t truly need any of it. So I missed out on a few things, namely the the Ninja Creami (although I hate single-use appliances) which is probably for the best!! I did still really want a water table for Leni, especially since SF “summer” is still coming up (usually nicest weather here is Sept-Oct!). I’ve been searching FB marketplace but no luck, so I bit the bullet and ordered this one!
Speaking of water my older kids have been loving these goggles so much they wear them in the bath, lol.
While we’re at it- wanna know the most popular items I posted this week? In order the top 5 most-loved items were the Grape Slicer, my favorite Coop Toddler Pillow, Magnatiles Set, Water Wow, and the Newton Travel Crib. All great picks and weirdly- some are still showing marked down!
I am SO EXCITED because our home spaces have been driving me insane- no organization or logic behind any of it- and I just hired a professional organizer!!! She’s going to come and do 2 different phases of purging and organizing later in August. I know I picked a winner when she said “I promise I won’t just buy pretty bins for all your clutter.” I’ll show you what we do!
I started a new Audio book- I’m Glad My Mom Died. The title is kind of shocking I know but I’ve heard good things! Excited to dive in, I’ve only listened to the first few minutes so far. By the way- soon we will be choosing our next Book Club pick! Be sure to subscribe (the paid version is $5 per month!) so you can join us!
This week on NOTU we talked to Many Ruggeri about normal infant sleep, sleep training and more. For paid subscribers to this Substack I do a weekly podcast deep dive and provide some behind the scenes and extra resources related to each episode! If you’re interested in getting all of these sleep and sleep training related resources I recommend subscribing + checking it out!
I love finding other writers on Substack so try to share relevent posts I like. Here are a couple I read this week:
For paid subscribers I’m working on a post all about tech and screen time. Coming soon! Another one I want to do is a huge roundup of things people are reading, listening to, cooking and more. Like a giant inspo post for life.
Also working on finishing up my Portugal roundup, and I’m thinking it’d be fun to do a “jewelry tour” post since I always love watching those on Tiktok! I’m always down for suggestions and requests so if you have an idea for a post please LMK!
That’s it for this week. I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend and enjoying your nap traps. On IG this week I asked if it was still considered a “trap” if you are a willing participant? We need a new name for this!!
Talk soon,
xo Rach
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Love how polite you ChatGPT prompts are 😂