More often than not, I found myself thinking about what exactly to cook for more time than I should, so I came up with this “Culinary Roulette.” The tool serves up a week’s worth of meal themes. From “Meatless Mondays” to “Fish Fridays”, each theme sparks inspiration for dishes that might have been off my radar. Not feeling a particular theme? A swift click on the refresh icon (↻) next to each theme shuffles it for an alternative.
- Mezze-Monday
Explore the variety of small dishes from the Middle Eastern cuisine, perfect for sharing.
- Tempeh-Tuesday
Explore dishes made from this fermented soy product, rich in protein and flavor.
- Worldwide-Wednesday
Travel the globe with dishes from different cultures and cuisines.
- Thick-Soup-Thursday
Warm up with hearty, thick soups like chowders, bisques, and creamy vegetable purees.
- Foraged-Friday
Use wild and foraged ingredients, like mushrooms or berries, for a touch of nature in your meal.
- Sandwich-Saturday
Delight in classic and creative sandwiches, from clubs to paninis.
- Smoothie-Sunday
Blend fruits, veggies, and proteins for a rejuvenating start to your day.
I developed the Culinary Roulette to speed up my meal-planning and let spontaneity lead my kitchen endeavors. The themes were generated using ChatGPT4, using the following prompt:
I am trying to make meal planning easier by making “Theme-days” such as Meatless-Monday, Tofu-Thursday or Fish-Friday. Please give me 30 different suggestions with the word [day of the week]. Please make several of these themes healthy and vegan. Please add a one sentence description to each them.
I further intend to use ChatGPT to narrow down the actual recipe even more using for example the following prompt:
Give me three recipe ideas for the following prompt. Briefly describe the recipes in one sentence each. Please focus on healthy meals that can be made at home in a reasonable timeframe. Consider that I am allergic to dairy and eggs: [Theme]
I don’t trust ChatGPT with actual recipes, so from that point on I’ll then either improvise or look up an actual recipe. Here’s a quick example of what I’ve now planned for the rest of the week.