Summary
- Large language models (LLM) like Google Bard can be useful for planning meals and coming up with interesting ideas, even with limited ingredients.
- Bard's recommendations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner were quick and easy to make and turned out to be delicious.
- Using an LLM like Bard to generate meal plans can be a great way to get creative ideas and inspiration, but if you're concerned about privacy concerns, you can run it locally on a powerful PC.
When discussing how large language models (LLM) can be useful, I've mentioned several times that they have a lot of practical, real-world uses. They can be used to help write emails, make an exercise plan, or make a meal plan. In my case, I decided to put my money where my mouth is (somewhat literally) and actually asked Google Bard with Gemini to plan my next three meals. That means Bard planned a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner for me, with a combination of ingredients I had in my cupboard and fridge and what was available to me at Lidl.
I'm no chef, but I'm generally competent when it comes to cooking. Bard helped in not only planning my meals, but coming up with some interesting ideas, including meals I wouldn't necessarily have thought of when looking at what was available to me.
Breakfast: Greek yogurt parfait
Nice and easy
Bard's first recommendation for me for breakfast was a greek yogurt parfait. Don't get me wrong, this isn't exactly a meal that Bard came up with all by itself, but it was quite nice and not something I've really made for myself before. The exact instructions Bard gave me were as follows:
Layer thick Greek yogurt in a bowl with Lidl's granola (look for options with nuts and seeds for extra protein and healthy fats). Top with chopped apples, frozen berries, or Lidl's pumpkin seeds for additional vitamins and textures. Drizzle with honey or maple syrup for a touch of sweetness.
It's a pretty basic recipe that was quick and easy to weigh out and make, and as I had apples already available, it didn't take much to put together. I did exactly as Google said, mixed it up, and then drizzled with a small amount of honey. Not bad!
Lunch: Jerk chicken with pasta
My favorite recommendation
This was my favorite recommendation out of the three, and it really made me appreciate how much Bard could open up for me as an option. This meal used tomato sauce, Caribbean jerk sauce, chopped apples, crispy onion, and shredded chicken. I also added a bit of cheese in between the sauce and the pasta, and I was very impressed by how good this turned out. The exact instructions Bard gave me were as follows:
Use the tomato sauce base and add Lidl's jerk paste or marinade to spice up the shredded chicken. Toss with cooked pasta, chopped apples, and crispy onions for a sweet and spicy finish. Serve with Lidl's garlic naan on the side.
Overall, this was my favorite recipe of the lot. I didn't expect the chopped apple pieces to be as tasty as they were in contrast to the jerk sauce, and the shredded chicken went very well with the sauce, too. This meal alone has made me consider using AI more for just getting random ideas of things to make. I did skip out on the garlic naan, though, as that seemed like a lot of food for lunch.
Dinner: Chicken parmigiana pasta
Surprisingly decent
Dinner was a chicken parmigiana with pasta, which is fairly basic but not something I'd ever made myself. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, so I used a small amount of pasta for the meal, though it ended up looking a little bit sad. Having said that, it tasted great! Also, excuse the photo; there is indeed tomato sauce underneath the piece of chicken; you just can't really see it. The exact instructions Bard gave me were as follows:
Breaded chicken steaks pan-fried and topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and crispy onions. Serve with pasta of your choice (e.g., spaghetti, penne) and a side of applesauce for a sweet and savory combo.
If you notice, I didn't use applesauce for the side. I wasn't going to make applesauce for something that I knew probably wouldn't be a good combo. The rest was excellent, though. Making chicken parmigiana is not difficult by any stretch, but it is not something I've ever had before, let alone made. Overall, this one was a success, and I also made it for my girlfriend, who also liked it!
If you're really stuck, an LLM can be a great way to get ideas
After this experiment, I think I'll continue to use Bard to help me generate meal plans. It gave some basic ideas, but I believe that with some tuning, it could turn out great. I wouldn't trust it to tell me how long to cook certain things for, but the ideas of what I can merge seemed to work quite well. I was incredibly apprehensive about the apples with the jerk sauce and tomato sauce, but it turned out much better than I expected.
This was a fun article to write, and it impressed me with the idea of what LLMs are capable of. I'll definitely be making the jerk chicken pasta again, that's for sure!
If you're worried about privacy and sharing information about your location or things in your house with an LLM, you could try to run LM Studio on a powerful PC with a powerful LLM to work it out for you. That way, you're running it locally, and there's no chance of your data ending up elsewhere.