You know that feeling when you open the fridge,
you're staring at a really sad onion, a bag of
carrots, maybe half a bag of tortillas. And I
think, what on earth am I supposed to make with
this? That was me, two nights in a row. So instead
of doomscrolling DoorDash, which is a popular
delivery system, a food delivery system in the
United States, I thought, what if AI could help?
Hey, I'm Mukundan. This show is about solving
real problems with small, useful AI, things that
you can actually use today. Each week, we pick
one problem, build a simple workflow or tool,
and talk through the decisions, what to automate,
how to check quality, and how to make it reliable.
If you're a builder, creator, or just AI curious,
you'll leave with the steps that you can copy
tonight. I thought, what if AI could help, right?
Not to give me some crazy Michelin level recipe,
but something that I can actually make with what
I already have. Today I'll take you behind the
scenes of my Pantry to Plate AI app, which is
an app I used to help. Today I'll take you behind
the scenes of the prompt I used to give me options
of what kind of food I can make with the ingredients
I have at home. and the appliances the ingredients
and appliances that i have at home so we'll explore
the rules that keep this app very practical the
ai that helps it make the app the prompt was
also so yes here's what i'm trying to uh here's
what i'm trying to achieve here i will give an
app and also i'll give a prompt that can be used
for everybody so it's not just you need to be
very technical to do it you can just go with
the app or the prompt, whichever one you like,
so that you can try yourself tonight. So it's
a prompt that you can put in your chat GPT or
cloud, and then you can try that prompt tonight.
Here's the problem we all face. Let's say it's
9 .30 p .m. on a weekday night. You're exhausted,
and there's not a lot at home, food -wise. It
could be rising inflation costs, could be that
you didn't have time to go to the grocery store,
or you didn't want to be... buying any groceries
from your, you know, food, the grocery food app
or grocery food delivery app, right? So that's
something that a lot of people go through this,
right? You are not having anything at home to
make. So you end up buying outside or whatever,
right? Or you eat something basic, could be a
sandwich. But sometimes even when you're that
tired or bored, you still don't want to eat.
that kind of boring food I mean quote -unquote
boring it would not be boring for everybody but
yeah it's in my particular case what I'll say
is like it was very late I mean I just finished
work and I do like I have to so in my particular
case it was just that it like it was very late
in the evening it was like around 7 30 and I
had nothing prepared for food and I had to wake
up early in the morning so I had to sleep in
early as well like usually I sleep around 10
p .m and this particular case no it was so in
my particular case it was like 7 30 p .m in the
evening and it was a very long day and i was
exhausted so i all i and i'm really hungry too
and all i see in my kitchen is just rice potatoes
and i had an instant pot luckily so although
i had this instant pot for a while i've not been
using it the way i would have thought i would
right and instant pot for those of you who are
not familiar it's like a cooking appliances which
is essentially like a more convenient pressure
cooker it's like it's like a crock pot but it's
faster that's what i would say would make it
an instant pot crock pot usually takes a while
to cook instant pots you know get the cooking
done quickly but anyway so here's what happened
on this particular night i was almost going to
order something to eat from a fast food place
because i was just done and i thought like what
and i've been i've been in this ai space like
i've been talking about AI, how we can use AI
in the practical world already by this time.
But I thought, what if I can use AI to help me
craft up some recipes that I can use? But I mean,
then again, I'm not a great cook and nor am I
a registered dietitian. I'm not even a dietitian.
I don't even know what to make or eat most of
the days. Or I don't know what kind of diet would
be the greatest to follow. I guess I have a general
idea, but you know. Then again, I'm not an expert
is what I'm trying to say. I thought, what if
I could use AI to help me make this app or at
least help me build out a prompt that I can use
to, you know, tell, at least help me build out
a prompt which I can then feed this prompt what
kind of ingredients I have at home, maybe what
kind of appliances that I have available to me
so that it... spits out these recipes that i
can i can use so i'm not even a great cook so
like i said so it's not going to be something
i wanted complex i wanted something easy so one
thing i do acknowledge like you know and i think
most people can relate who watch these food contests
right like these uh these shows which which have
food competitions i think one of them is chopped
If you're familiar with it, it's like a food
competition show. You need to make food really
quick, I guess, and in high pressure environments.
That's basically the gist of it. So instead of
like a singing show, like The Idol or something,
where you're competing with others for your voice,
you are competing with others for your cooking
skills. And it's like, yeah, in this case, let's
call this job a TV show. except that you're the
only contestant and the prize is that you're
not going to quit. And the prize is that you're
just not going to go to bed hungry. And that's
the universal pain point. We don't want to be
hungry, obviously. We all have our different
appliances at home. We have a bunch of random
ingredients and everyone has those nights where
we just don't want to think. We don't want to
be spending our time thinking what I'm going
to be eating. So we just want to be eating, right?
Yeah, I mean, if you're really smart enough,
you'd probably be meal prepping, right, for the
week. Preparing your meals in advance on the
weekends and then over the week, you just have
to warm it up. That's great. But sometimes you
just feel like eating fresh food. And for those
kind of cases, obviously, like, how do you do
it when you're really busy as well? That's really
the problem here. i wanted to see how i can use
ai to help me with this problem but when i was
looking at this problem i didn't want to directly
start with ai i wanted to build like a set of
rules for this prompt right so i wanted to see
not just using what ingredients i have at home
but also like what kind of appliances or what
kind of stuff i have at home essentially like
everything that i have at home how can i so i
didn't want to um start with the air like i said
i just wanted to build out a rule system right
like if you have an air fryer and potatoes you
should see make crispy veggies it's just very
simple right like i mean if if you have potatoes
you know what an air fryer does if you're familiar
with an air fryer It helps you crisp up everything
that you have. That's the main function of it.
Everything else is, I think, like an extra feature.
Yeah, I'm sure it allows you to bake and maybe
dehydrate and everything. But at the end of the
day, it's just crisping up everything without
using oil or maybe not much oil, right? In my
case, I wanted it to use the appliances that
I have at home as an input, use the ingredients
that I have at home as an input as well, and
then spit out something. which will tell me more
practical ways of how I can make food. So if
I have like, let's say I have carrots, I have
chicken, I don't know, potatoes, what can it
suggest with what I have? And let's say I have
an Instant Pot too, right? So maybe it will suggest,
for example, it would tell me to bake the chicken
and then like cook the chicken in the Instant
Pot, shred it out with, you know, your knives
and fork or whatever. use that with potatoes
or something like make something with the potatoes
or carrots like the instant pot so everything
can be done really essentially something which
is easy but I just wanted it to understand that
like I just didn't want like basic recipes I
wanted it to tell me how I can do everything
in an efficient way so I broke it down into categories
where I told like there's three things I did
essentially one is the appliances then the ingredient
groups and one was meal type and the last one
was meal types So the appliances, I told it like
what kind of appliances I have at home. So for
example, in my case, it was an air fryer, instant
pot, blender, oven, stove top, obviously, and
a toaster oven and a grill. So these are like
some different options. But in my case, the appliances
that I had on hand was just air fryer, instant
pot, a blender, oven, and a stove top. So then
the other thing was I had to tell it what kind
of ingredient groups I have at home, like pantry
staples, proteins, vegetables. spices, dairy,
condiments, and what kind of meal types I wanted.
Like breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. And
the other thing I was thinking about in a future
version was how to add like cuisine in it. Like
what kind of different cuisines I want. Whether
it's Mexican or Greek or Italian, right, or Indian.
So I wanted my app to feel like, you know, your
grandma's recipe binder, for instance. Predictable.
structured and it's always there because well
i mean ai is at the end of the day garbage in
garbage out so ai alone it's just sometimes it's
like asking a friend who's too creative for their
own good so i don't want to be too creative right
don't tell me like oh something's really fancy
and sometimes some of those things may not make
sense but i wanted some general ideas again one
thing to remember with ai is like yeah it's going
to give you some suggestions But at the end of
the day, you still have to use your own brain
to make the food. You have to think if those
suggestions make sense to you. But you want some
ideas to think a little bit at least. I know
you're extremely tired. And maybe something more
basic is fine. Like chicken cooked by itself
or potatoes cooked by itself. But I would say
not like super complex recipes. I wouldn't trust
AI completely there. At some point, you might
have to just... youtube a bit obviously but in
this case this use case is specifically for when
you're like really exhausted right for those
kind of cases or you're like really you know
it's probably the end of the month one second
so that's essentially it i didn't want it to
be extremely creative just wanted to give some
basic recipes for me that i can make on a week
night for example right now let's try to think
about how and where the ai fits it i i wanted
this structure i didn't want i didn't want there
to be like some structure to it i just wanted
some recipes which i can make quick ideas essentially
but obviously i'm going to be using my own brain
there i wanted ai to add some fun to it and i
guess the spice literally um here's how i use
ai in the app here's how i use ai in the app
i use it for Recipe riffing. I use it for getting
some twists and basic recipes. So I'm Indian,
just for context. So as an Indian, I try to make
veg pulao, which is nothing but cooked rice mixed
with... So it's nothing but rice cooked with
vegetables, mixed vegetables. And an AI might
suggest a Thai version of it with coconut milk
or a Mexican version with... chili those are
some nice twists and obviously not everything
not every one of those twists might make sense
but it is nice to know what you can do with things
you have on hand so for example you may just
have the rice and you may not have any mixed
vegetables at home and you may have for example
that just like a tomato at home or just like
the canned tomato sauce which what you can do
with that for example right so ai might suggest
like a twist in that recipe so that's it's nice
to know At the end of the day, it might offer
you some ingredient swaps, right? So if you don't
have any cumin at home, it might say like use
coriander powder instead. Or if you don't have
coriander powder, if you have coriander or something
like that, or, you know, get the drift. Like
we just mentioned what all stuff you have at
home and it might offer you some kind of alternative
in this case. It might give you, I tell you some
flavor sliders, which means that. You can tell
the AI the kind of mood that you're in. If you're
in a mood for something quick, if you're in a
mood for something spicy or healthy or something
even comforting, it tweaks the recipes to match
that vibe and also give you some smart combo
options, right? Like if you have tortillas, beans
and cheese, obviously the rules say quesadilla,
but AI can tell you a bit further. what about
some indian style masala wrap right so that you
can do as well if you tell it yeah these other
kind of spices at home so like maybe if you have
some indian spices at home like a curry masala
or a curry powder or some turmeric it might suggest
some possible suggestions there and it might
help you with some pantry chat is what i call
it so if you're like completely stuck so if you're
like completely stuck you can just type in what
you have and yeah i will throw out a few ideas
to help you get going so basically it is chatting
with you like a i guess what a chatbot does in
that sense or your friend does right so think
in more human terms like a friend but obviously
it will it will give you some ideas to get you
going now it's like it's like having gordon ramsey
or or and your grandma in the kitchen without
the yelling yes it's just it's just fun that's
all i think it is now here's something i wanted
to try with you like i wanted to make this interactive
so let's try and copy this and try it in your
chat gpt application or your cloud app so let's
say this is this is the prompt i want you to
try and and paste it in your chat gpt or cloud
say this right i have In bracket, list your three
to five ingredients and these appliances. And
again, list those appliances in bracket. Suggest
three meal ideas. I can make it under 30 minutes.
So it's just to reiterate, suggest three meal
ideas I can make in under 30 minutes. If I'm
missing something, suggest simple substitutions
from the pantry basics that I have at home. Keep
it realistic. And this can be more complex. This
was the prompt essentially, but if you want to
make it more complex, you can. At the end of
the day, just think of it like a partner that
you want to talk to. Think of it like a human,
which helps with conversations. Obviously, it's
not a human, but you should be, if you think
it like a human, like how you would talk to a
natural human being, that's the same thing you
need to do, which would help you get better responses
from the AI. So I want you to try this tonight.
And again, I'm going to put this prompt in the
show notes so you have it. And I'll be creating
a discussion group for you to post your thoughts.
And you can reach out to me personally. If you
sign up for my free newsletter, you can directly
contact me and I can respond back to that to
see if you could come up with something. So try
this tonight. Let me know if the AI gave you
something that you could cook. or something crazy.
I'd like to know, right? I'm very interested
to see how this works. So try this in your prompt
and share your results with me on Substack or
Twitter or you can just email me as well if you
sign up for the free newsletter. Another thing
I wanted to try is here's a quick quiz for you.
Just it's a true or false. If you only rely on
AI, this is the question, right? If you only
rely on AI, it might suggest recipes you can't
cook because it assumes you have tools that...
you don't is it true or false so i'm gonna you
know say the question one more time if you only
rely on ai it might suggest recipes you can't
cook because it assumes you have tools you don't
so i'm giving you a few seconds here to think
and well here's the solution right answer is
true because The app always starts with the rules
and AI comes second. So that's essentially it.
Now, here's something I wanted to discuss with
you as well in this segment. When it comes to
cooking, do you prefer structure, like tried
and true recipes or creativity, something new
and fun? Share that answer with me online or
email or however you want to reach me. And all
the ways to connect with me are in the show notes.
I'll tell you what the community says in the
next episode. I learned that, here's what my
lessons from this app was. I learned that AI
works best as your partner, but not as a replacement,
right? In cooking, in work, in life, you need
the rails first and then you need creativity.
The magic isn't AI versus rules. It's AI with
the rules. You need to give that context essentially.
That's what makes this app useful. You can't
just be saying, yeah, give me like recipes to
cook because that's not going to be helpful at
all. You need to give it certain instructions.
Talk to it like a human would. Like how would
a human directly understand what kind of food
you want if they don't know you at all? That's
what makes this app useful. I think it always
gives you a real meal you can cook, but also
keeps it interesting with new ideas. So to summarize
that, that night with just rice, onions and potatoes,
I ended up making a veg pulao. which is just
like I said, like a rice cooked with vegetables.
And the app suggested that Thai twist with coconut
milk, but that's when I realized this wasn't
just about dinner. It was a mindset. So here's
a challenge that I have for you. Try the prompt
that I gave earlier tonight. And again, it's
in the show notes. But if you want something
more structured, check out that app that I built.
It's also going to be in the show notes where
it's a bit more code heavy. So if you wanted
to try that, you can try that as well. So the
rules keep you grounded, but AI will add that
spark to what you're doing. And please share
the results with me. I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to see
these results as well. Until next time, may your
fridge be full, your AI be helpful, and your
dinner actually tastes good. well in the show
notes you also see some you know the prompt challenges
the quiz and a discussion question and uh you
know a link to the blog which will have the app
as well so that will help you try to do it by
yourself before before you go just wanted to
let you know that i record with riverside I'm
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