by Sam Vangsness
One of my goals when writing these blogs is to provide helpful, simple kitchen tips. This one that I am sharing today has been one of my recent favorites, especially during the busy holiday season. This tip is perfect for helping you use up what you have on hand and save on your grocery bill. We have all heard of AI, whether you use it daily or haven’t touched it. I have started using it in the kitchen, and it has been a useful tool. That’s right, a tool, like my cast iron skillet, mixer, or recipe books.
I love coming up with new dishes, but sometimes I feel stumped, especially when we have eaten taco bowls three times in a week. Using a “chatbot” like Brave’s Leo or Google’s Gemini can help spark inspiration and make time in the kitchen less stressful. You can ask it to help brainstorm a whole week of meals or just tonight’s dinner. Let’s walk through how I approach using the tool to help with meals.
- First, I make a list of things in the fridge that I know need to be used up soon. Then, I take note of what protein or other ingredients I want to use.
- Then, I survey my husband to see if there is anything in particular he wants for supper, like Chinese or Mexican food, or even a good ol’ hotdish.
- After that, I ask myself “how many dishes do I want to do tonight?” and I usually go with one pot.
- Then, I go to the chatbot and tell it my wishes. Something like, “I have leftover steak in the fridge and want a simple, cozy meal that I can make in the instant pot in less than 20 minutes.”
- From there, the chatbot will give me a list of potential recipes. I review them and see what looks best. For this prompt, I went with the creamy steak and potato recipe, which had steak, diced potatoes, onions, butter, beef broth, sour cream, and seasoning. I ended up adding some cream cheese vs. the sour cream and added some frozen vegetables because that’s what I had on hand.
- If you don't like any of the suggestions, you can ask for a few more recipes or ask for a more specific recipe you may be looking for.
There are so many time-saving ways to use this tool to make your time in the kitchen more efficient. You could ask it to make a week's worth of meals, high-protein breakfast options, convert a recipe to use an Instant Pot (my favorite), convert a recipe to metric for baking, ask it to substitute ingredients in a recipe to use what you have, and much more!
Using this tool is like having your own personal kitchen assistant that is helping you use ingredients you have on hand, saving time and money, only it doesn't help with dishes and the clean up! ;)
Let me know if you use it or have used it and what you think!
Sam lives in rural Morton County with her husband. She enjoys being outside working alongside her husband, but equally enjoys being in the kitchen cooking nutritious, delicious, simple meals, and sharing tips, tricks, and recipes along the way.