Welcome back to Dinner Diary! Recently, my sister Claire showed me some creative ways to use ChatGPT (a chatbot that generates text using artificial intelligence) for help with everyday things, including meal planning. She asked it to generate a weekly meal plan using my FETCH criteria—Filling, Easy, Tasty, Cheap and Healthy. And it did! So I decided to outsource my meal planning to the robots this week. I gave it this prompt: “Please generate a week’s worth of dinners that meet the following criteria: Filling, Easy, Tasty, Cheap and Healthy.” (I figured it couldn’t hurt to be polite; my mom is always scolding my dad for not saying “please” when he tells Siri to do something.) The following meals are the FETCH dinners that ChatGPT helpfully proposed.
Sunday 5/14/23
Lentil soup with whole grain bread and carrot top pesto
Tonight’s dinner, as described by ChatGPT:
Lentil soup with whole grain bread: Cook lentils according to package instructions (you can use canned lentils to save time). In a separate pot, sauté onions, garlic, carrots, and celery until soft. Add the cooked lentils, some vegetable broth, and a can of diced tomatoes to the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve with a slice of whole grain bread. This meal is filling, comforting, and high in protein and fiber.
First of all, I love that ChatGPT heard FETCH and immediately proposed lentils. This bot clearly understood the assignment; lentils are off the charts on the FETCH index. However, cooking the lentils separately from the aromatics? Using canned lentils?? Why would you do these things when dried lentils only take 25-30 minutes to cook, and their flavor is greatly improved by hanging out in a pot with good influences like onion, garlic and carrots?
So I cooked the dried lentils with everything else, like a sensible human. I also improved on this recipe by sautéing the aromatics in the last of the lard from my Easter pork shoulder, adding two tablespoons of tomato paste, and using some of the magic bean broth I’d frozen the last time I made Carla’s beans. It was a very good soup. And I had all these lush green tops left over from the farmers market carrots, so I decided to make carrot top pesto (a food-waste-fighting classic!) to spread on our whole grain toast.
Do you remember the old folktale, Stone Soup? A hungry stranger shows up in the village with a stone and an empty soup pot, telling everyone he’s going to make this amazing dish called “stone soup.” He’s like, “You guys, stone soup is so good. All I need to make it is this stone, this pot and some water. Actually, I also need an onion. Anyone got a spare onion? Oh, and a carrot, and some potatoes? You know, if we had some scraps of meat, that would really make the stone flavor pop.” Somehow, this joker convinces the villagers to provide all the soup ingredients, and before you know it, he’s scammed his way into a free meal.
This recipe for carrot top pesto reminded me of that story. “Wow, carrot greens! So yummy, right? All we need now is some olive oil. Oh, and some spinach, garlic, roasted cashews, salt and pepper!” Yeah, I see you, Stone Soup. I followed the instructions and it still just tasted very… green. Not in a bad way, but not in a spread this on my toast immediately! way, either. So I added some Parmesan, and a few tablespoons of some basil paste I had in the fridge, and it was better.
ChatGPT was right: this meal was filling and comforting. Anne ranked it in the top ten best meals I’ve ever made (!!!) Starting off strong.
Monday 5/15/23
Roasted chicken thighs with Brussels sprouts, carrots, and potatoes
Roasted chicken thighs with roasted vegetables: Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and your favorite herbs, such as rosemary and thyme. Roast in the oven at 425°F for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the thighs. Serve with roasted vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, carrots, and potatoes. This meal is simple, filling, and provides protein and plenty of nutrients.
This dinner is one that we love around here, but tonight it didn’t go quite as planned. I wish I could blame the hiccups on ChatGPT, but I cannot tell a lie: it was all human error. I laid the marinated chicken thighs directly on top of the vegetables, so that the veggies would get basted with the fat and juices from the meat. All fine and good. BUT I decided to use our big roasting pan instead of a simple sheet pan, not taking into account that different vessels distribute heat differently. It took me a while to figure out why the chicken wasn’t coming up to temp and the potatoes were still slightly crunchy, even after 45 minutes. Eventually it clicked: the metal of the roasting pan is a lot thicker than a sheet pan and its sides are much taller, so the conducted heat wasn’t reaching the food at the same speed, and the hot oven air wasn’t able to circulate as easily as it usually does. This was an important reminder that cooking is science, and the right tools matter!
Even though it took too long and I got impatient while learning my science lesson, the meal came out delicious. Tender, juicy chicken; soft, caramelized veggies. Another win for AI.
Tuesday 5/16/23
Black bean tacos with salsa and guacamole
Black bean tacos with salsa and guacamole: Warm up a can of black beans and season with cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder. Serve in taco shells with your favorite toppings, such as salsa, guacamole, and shredded cheese. This meal is quick, satisfying, and provides plenty of protein and fiber.
I took the bean preparation a little farther than suggested, and made my own version of refried beans: chopping onions, garlic and red bell pepper to sauté in olive oil and tomato paste before adding the black beans and spices, then simmering them into a saucy consistency with a little reserved liquid from a jar of jalapeños. I served these on corn tortillas, charred on the stove top, with cheese, salsa, Greek yogurt, and guacamole. My homemade guacamole goes like this: I mash an avocado with lime juice, minced garlic, and salt, and add a big spoonful of chunky salsa for spice (I don’t put cilantro or onion in my guacamole, and yes, I know that in avoiding these ingredients I’m pushing the limits of what can be considered guacamole).
These tacos were fantastic. And I didn’t even make them on Tuesday on purpose. Serendipitous.
Wednesday 5/17/23
Marty’s burgers and fries
I didn’t make an AI-inspired dinner tonight; we gave in to a spontaneous late-afternoon burger craving and took a family walk to Marty’s on Central Ave. It was our first time there, and I have no idea why we waited so long to check it out—these burgers were legit. On par with Shake Shack. Local friends, get thee to Marty’s, post-haste.
Along with our burgers, we shared an order of the Old Bay fries, which were salty, crispy, and perfectly seasoned. We ate at a picnic table on the sidewalk, and the sky was blue; the baby said hi to passing strangers, and laughed. Sometimes, on a gorgeous sunny afternoon, you just have to “let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” I had such a lovely time that I forgot to snap a picture of the food; just imagine a photograph of a beautiful burger, delicately lit by the afternoon sun.
Thursday 5/18/23
Quinoa bowl with cauliflower, sweet potato and chickpeas
Quinoa bowl with roasted vegetables and tahini dressing: Cook quinoa according to package instructions and toss with roasted veggies (such as Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower). Drizzle with a homemade tahini dressing made with tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and a touch of honey. This meal is filling, flavorful, and provides plenty of protein and healthy fats.
AI, you’ve done it again: another slam dunk FETCH meal (this one would even be right at home at a lesbian potluck. Does that make it FLETCH?) I took this grain bowl concept in a Moroccan direction by seasoning the veggies with a ras el hanout spice blend I had in my cabinet, and adding golden raisins to the mix. For extra protein, I also added some crispy roasted chickpeas and toasted a few tablespoons of a super seed blend (pumpkin, hemp, chia, flax and sunflower). The result was an incredible combination of tastes and textures—chewy, fluffy quinoa, crunchy seeds and chickpeas, tender roasted veggies, creamy tahini sauce. This has been my favorite of the ChatGPT-generated meals so far. I feel nourished and happy, all watched over by machines of loving grace.
Friday 5/19/23
Chicken and veggie stir-fry
Chickpea and vegetable stir-fry: Cook some brown rice according to package instructions. In a separate pan, sauté sliced bell peppers, broccoli, and snap peas until they're tender-crisp. Add a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas and a sauce made from soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic. Serve the stir-fry over the cooked brown rice. This meal is filling, flavorful, and packed with protein and healthy vegetables.
I strayed from the ChatGPT script here; while I love a good can of chickpeas as much as the next bean enthusiast, I don’t think they have any place in a Chinese-inspired stir-fry. So I went with chicken breasts as the protein instead. I also decided to try a new recipe instead of my old June Xie stir-fry standby. I substituted peanuts for the cashews, added broccoli and cabbage, and served this over quinoa from last night. Not exactly what the bot proposed, but it was, in fact, filling and flavorful and packed with protein and healthy vegetables.
Saturday 5/20/23
Big Salad (Hannah’s Version)
During dinner planning talks this morning, my wife, Anne, issued the following statement:
As your primary taster, I thought the dinners were less exciting this week, and I definitely prefer Hannah-designed meals over AI-designed meals. So personally, I’m celebrating the end of ChatGPT week.
I was surprised (and a little flattered). I’ve enjoyed the AI meals, and I love a gimmick, but I never want to chain myself to a gimmick for gimmickry’s sake. So I took pity on Anne and decided that we could free ourselves from the tyranny of artificial intelligence. We still had a ton of veggies in the fridge, so I decided to turn them into a Big Salad: chopped raw broccoli and sugar snap peas with roasted sweet potatoes and the rest of the quinoa. I topped the salads with hard boiled eggs and toasted seeds, and dressed them with the tahini sauce from the quinoa bowls. It tasted bright, fresh, and earthy, everything we want from a Big Salad.
Reflecting on the week, I realized that while I enjoyed most of these bot-planned meals, what I missed by outsourcing my meal planning was the creative, problem-solving aspect of the dinner process. I like opening the fridge and pondering how to combine different ingredients into something delicious, and having free reign to design meals as I see fit. So it felt good to return to that tonight.
See, AI? You’re not the boss of me. Now open the pod bay doors, HAL.
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So there you have it! Here’s a link to last week’s Dinner Diary in case you missed it, and here’s a link to a list of terrible AI-generated novelty socks from Janelle Shane’s blog, AI Weirdness, which always makes me laugh harder than anything else.
Go forth and use ChatGPT for your own ends, culinary or otherwise; but remember the wise words of my mom: “Phil, you have to be nice to Siri, or she’s going to stop helping you.”
XO,
Hannah
Love your writing and the entertainment I received from your weekly post. Keep up the good work and it presents a breath of fresh air. Thanks again Hannah. Love you