Ever find yourself staring into the fridge at 6 p.m. wondering what on earth to make for dinner? You’re not alone. Meal planning often falls to the bottom of the list for busy parents. But what if technology could do the hard part for you?
Enter artificial intelligence (AI) as a meal planner. It’s changing family kitchens by taking out the guesswork. These tools can help parents with nearly anything, including thinking up recipes, creating shopping lists in seconds, and even suggesting healthier swaps kids might actually eat.
Parents spoke to three moms about how they’re using these AI features to make their lives easier in the kitchen.
Using AI for Picky Eaters
Before she started using AI to meal plan about a year ago, T. Renee’ Smith says she was spending about five to six hours every weekend to do so.
“It wasn’t the chopping or the cooking that wore me out, it was the decision fatigue,” says Smith, the CEO of iSuccess Consulting, Inc., mom of two teen boys, an adult daughter, and proud nana to two feisty granddaughters. “Just figuring out what to cook for picky eaters with food restrictions felt like a full-time job. So, I put AI to work.”
Suddenly, meal prep stopped being so stressful. Smith now knows exactly what she’s cooking, her grocery list is done in minutes, and she can actually enjoy the process.
Here’s how it works in her house: AI creates four weekly menus, each one with pictures of what the finished meal should look like. “It creates my shopping list automatically, sorted by aisle, so I’m in and out of the store faster than ever,” she adds. “That alone saves me at least an hour every weekend.”
If she’s low on time, she just snaps a picture of what’s in her fridge and spice cabinet, uploads it, and AI will give her recipe ideas using exactly what she has on hand. No more last-minute grocery runs needed.
“Just figuring out what to cook for picky eaters with food restrictions felt like a full-time job. So, I put AI to work.”
T. Renee’ Smith
It’s all done by rotating between three tools: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
“ChatGPT and Gemini are my head chefs. I throw in my scattered mom-thoughts like seafood allergy, no pork, barely any beef, picky eaters, and oh yeah, I only have 30 minutes, and it gives me back actual home-cooked meal ideas that work,” she says. “One night it suggested honey garlic chicken with roasted carrots, which my teen shockingly ate without complaint. The next, it was sheet-pan fajita chicken with colorful peppers. It keeps me from falling into the same-old dinner rut.”
Smith adds that Perplexity is like her dietitian but without having to pay a bill.
“My youngest son is neurodiverse and eats the exact same ‘safe’ foods every day–lots of fruit but absolutely no veggies,” she says. “AI gave me a smoothie recipe that hid spinach under mango and banana, and pancake recipes with protein powder mixed in. He thinks he’s getting his favorites; I know he’s getting nutrition. Win-win.”
Multitasking With AI
Rebecca Oggenfuss, CEO of a strategic advisory firm, says she initially started using ChatGPT earlier this year to help her with business tasks.
“I started thinking about other areas of my life where I needed more support, and planning healthy meals during this busy season of life is a big pain point for me,” she says.
She spent around 30 minutes training the tool on her family’s needs, preferences, and schedule, and now she saves several hours per week when you consider scheduling, recipe sourcing, grocery lists, and prepping.
“The best part from a time-savings perspective is that it’s easy to multitask,” she shares. “I can ask ChatGPT to pull together the week’s meal plan while focusing on something for work or helping my son with his homework. The stress of meal planning has become a passive activity in the background of my day while I focus on more engaging tasks, which I love.”
Oggenfuss says that between the demands of her family’s schedule and running her business, things she used to enjoy, like cooking healthy meals for her family, can feel draining instead of joyful.
“I can’t eat gluten or dairy, and on top of that, my 8-year-old goes through phases of what he likes to eat and what he’ll battle me on,” she says. “It’s hard to feel innovative with so many constraints.”
“I can ask ChatGPT to pull together the week’s meal plan while focusing on something for work or helping my son with his homework.”
Rebecca Oggenfuss
This is where ChatGPT comes in.
“I trained mine to only suggest gluten-free and dairy-free meals with a focus on whole foods,” she says. “I trained it on the cuisines we enjoy, including Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Mediterranean.”
In addition, she typically asks for recipes that are easy to prep and makes sure to maximize the information.
“I prompt it to include the nutritional breakdown of each recipe to make sure it hits my macro goals for each day,” she says. “Once I’m happy with the menu, I ask it to write a grocery list. And if I have the time, I’ll input any perishable foods I have sitting in the fridge that I want to use up.”
Saving on Grocery Shopping With AI
Abby Brody, a mom of two, national digital parenting expert, ed-tech philanthropist, and author, also uses ChatGPT because of its versatility and broad knowledge base. “It also has a very engaging style and will quickly ‘learn’ about you and your family, store that information, and use it to help you accomplish tasks tailored to your specific situation,” she says.
She’s been using a specific prompt since she started using ChatGPT toward the end of 2022. Here’s how you do it: install the app on your phone, and use the plus (+) button to add an image. Select the camera and it will allow you to take photos. Then prompt it with whatever your needs are.
“At this point, my ChatGPT assistant/sous chef already knows from past information I’ve given it that Benno, 14, suffers with an anxiety disorder and for some reason will only eat white or light colored foods,” she explains. “It also knows that I’m stressed out, a clueless non-cook, and that I need to feed my other son, Jacob, 11, extra protein because he needs to gain weight and muscle for football and rugby.”
Her younger son is also in remission from neuroblastoma, a cancer that almost took his life, she says, pointing out that she wants to make sure that he eats properly to support his immune system. Of course, AI tools aren’t a replacement for a health care provider but they may offer healthy meal ideas when needed.
“It’s as if a wonderful magic fairy has popped into my kitchen and whipped up the perfect solution to my lack of time or interest in constantly grocery shopping.”
Abby Brody
ChatGPT immediately spits out a surprisingly good recipe using what she has in front of her, taking into account all of her family’s needs. She says that if she didn’t use it, she’d need to factor in at least two hours for grocery shopping, poring over recipe books and links, and then figuring out how to execute it all without problems. On top of that, she works from 8 a.m. to whatever hour is needed.
“It’s as if a wonderful magic fairy has popped into my kitchen and whipped up the perfect solution to my lack of time or interest in constantly grocery shopping, or spending money on take-out or Instacart,” she says. “No more rushing to the store, finding parking, braving crowds of other irritated moms trying to figure out dinner last-minute.”
She’s also keen to mention how much money AI saves her. “We all over-buy at times at the grocery store, yet somehow still end up with a kitchen full of ingredients that would otherwise go to waste because we have no idea how to use them to make a full, healthy meal,” she explains. “Letting AI help me make the most of what I already have saves our family of four roughly $100 a week—I’m not kidding.”
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