Lesson 5 of 5 · 10 minutes · Module 2: Use it well
Make something useful: a week of meals and a shopping list
Now you’ll use everything from this course on a real job. You’ll tell the AI about your household, get five evening meals and one shopping list, check it against your kitchen, ask for changes, and save it to print or keep on your phone.
You need
- Your account from lesson 2 (or ChatGPT without one)
- What your household eats, can’t eat, and already has in the cupboard
- A document or notes app to save the plan in
A narrated walkthrough of this lesson is coming. The steps below cover everything in it.
Step 1 of 7
Write down what it needs to know
Before you open the chat, jot down who you’re cooking for, anything anyone doesn’t or can’t eat, how long you’ve got to cook, and what’s already in the cupboard. Our made-up household was two adults and two children, one adult vegetarian, 30 minutes on weekdays.
CheckpointYou’ve got a few lines about your household.
Step 2 of 7
Ask for the plan and the list
Paste the prompt below and change the “About us” lines to match your household. Keep the “Please” lines as they are, because they say what shape you want the answer in.
The prompt · works in ChatGPT, Claude or any AI chat toolPlan five evening meals for Monday to Friday for my household, then give me one shopping list for all of them. About us: - Two adults and two children, aged 7 and 10 - One of the adults is vegetarian, so every meal must work without meat (a meat option on the side is fine) - On weekdays we have 30 minutes to cook - We already have rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic, oil and basic spices Please: - Give each meal a name, a one-line description and a rough cooking time - Group the shopping list by supermarket section: fruit and veg, chilled, cupboard, frozen - Leave off anything we already have - Use everyday ingredients from a UK supermarket - Don't guess pricesThe plan and list we got on 2026-10-03, unedited. Read our reply.
Screenshot to come
We haven’t captured this step yet. We’d rather show nothing than an old or made-up screen.
CheckpointYou’ve got five meals and one shopping list.
Step 3 of 7
Check it against your kitchen
Read every meal and every line of the list, properly. Ours had three things to check. Mushrooms were on the list for Friday, but none of the meal descriptions mentioned them. Limes were on the list for Monday and Tuesday, but neither recipe used them. And the fajitas needed paprika, cumin and chilli, which it simply assumed were in our “basic spices”.
Look for mushrooms and limes on the list, and the note about spices at the end. Read our reply.
CheckpointYou’ve found anything on the list that doesn’t match the meals or your cupboard.
Step 4 of 7
Check anything that matters for health
The AI can’t see the food in your shop. If anyone is vegetarian or has an allergy, check every label yourself. Our plan used halloumi, cheddar, mozzarella and soft cheese. The Vegetarian Society says some cheese is made with animal rennet, so it isn’t vegetarian, and to always check the label.
Screenshot captured 3 October 2026. - Not every cheese is vegetarian: always check the label
CheckpointYou know which items you’ll check labels for in the shop.
Step 5 of 7
Ask for a change
Ask for changes in the same chat, in plain words. Our seven-year-old won’t eat mushrooms, so we asked for them to go. It found them on Friday’s pizzas, swapped them for cherry tomatoes and updated the list.
The prompt · works in ChatGPT, Claude or any AI chat toolOur 7-year-old won't eat mushrooms. Swap out anything with mushrooms in it and give me the updated shopping list.The change we got back: only Friday changed. Read our reply.
Screenshot to come
We haven’t captured this step yet. We’d rather show nothing than an old or made-up screen.
CheckpointThe plan and list now suit your household.
Step 6 of 7
Make it ready to print
Ask for the final version as plain text, so it pastes cleanly into a document. Then paste it into a document or notes app and save it.
The prompt · works in ChatGPT, Claude or any AI chat toolNow put the final meal plan and shopping list together so I can paste them into a document and print them on one page. Plain text only, no tables.The final version we got, which is what the screenshot shows. Read our reply.
Screenshot captured 3 October 2026. - Five meals, one per weekday
- Meat options are cooked separately
- One shopping list, by supermarket section
- Tick-boxes to use in the shop
CheckpointYour plan and list are saved in a document.
Step 7 of 7
Take it with you
Print it, or keep the document on your phone and tick things off in the shop. Read it once more before you shop, because you’re the one who checks it. That’s been the point of this whole course.
Screenshot captured 3 October 2026. - The same plan on a phone
CheckpointYou’ve got a plan and a list you’ve checked, ready for the week.
Common problems
The finished page
When you have finished
Want to keep your place? Get a sign-in link by email and we’ll save your progress. You can keep reading either way. Sign in to save your progress.
Screenshots captured by tools/capture/ai-for-beginners-start-here.mjs: our finished plan is rendered from outputs/meal-plan-3.response.md as a plain local page, and the Vegetarian Society page is public. Steps 2 and 5 happen in a signed-in chat, so they have no screenshot yet.