Episode 36
I'm co-parenting dinner with a robot
This episode is a PSA for anyone who hates cooking, is bad at it and is tired of pretending they’ll magically get better one day.
I talk about how desperation, half a capsicum and a tin of sardines led me to asking ChatGPT what to cook for dinner.
And how outsourcing the thinking part of food has genuinely changed my life.
This isn’t about becoming a great cook or loving the process.
It’s about not eating sad, joyless meals out of exhaustion and reclaiming a bit of mental space when you’re already doing everything else.
There’s also anchovy pasta, talking to a robot like it’s a person, feminism via kitchen incompetence and why a boiled egg with steamed veg is not the life I’m aiming for anymore.
If you try this and it works, email me your winning recipes coz I’m collecting them.
And if you’re enjoying the show, please leave me a little rating or review!
This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.
I pay my respects to Elders past and present.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Host: Rachel Corbett
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Transcript
Hello there.
Speaker A:Today's episode is a PSA for anybody who is not using Chat GPT for this reason.
Speaker A:If you, like me, hate cooking, have no skills in that department whatsoever, can cook what you need to cook to stay alive, but would never make anybody eat what you cook.
Speaker A:You know, you're not.
Speaker A:I'm not inviting people over to eat some of the things that I dish up for myself.
Speaker A:You know, food for me is fuel.
Speaker A:Get it in me.
Speaker A:Make me not hungry anymore.
Speaker A:Let me continue on with parenting.
Speaker A:Give me what I need.
Speaker A:The veggies.
Speaker A:Veggies and the protein, and I will move on with my life.
Speaker A:There is no flavor here.
Speaker A:There are no spices.
Speaker A:There are no condiments.
Speaker A:There are no sauces.
Speaker A:It is El blando.
Speaker A:When I go out to dinner, on the other hand, I am like, you just let me at everything that I can get my hands on.
Speaker A:But when I'm at home, I'm not one of those people who's like, oh, I just get so relaxed when I'm cooking.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:I stress about it.
Speaker A:I don't know what to cook.
Speaker A:If you gave me five ingredients, and they were not five ingredients that added up to a dish I had cooked 50 times before, I would be asking for help or I would be logging onto Uber Eats because I know that if you leave me and my imagination with these five ingredients, then we're gonna get something inedible at the end of it because I don't know how to put flavors together.
Speaker A:That's not how my brain works.
Speaker A:It's not how my palate works.
Speaker A:I understand where my limits are.
Speaker A:I really know what I'm not good at.
Speaker A:I am not good at this stuff.
Speaker A:I am really doing everything I can for feminism by being so bad at being in the kitchen that no one would want me in there anyway.
Speaker A:So the other night, I come upon a bit of a pickle.
Speaker A:I had not done my weekly shop.
Speaker A:Now, my weekly shop is basically just going into the Kohl's app and clicking on a whole bunch of things in the bought before section.
Speaker A:So it's hardly a grueling task, but there's just something about the mental weight of it.
Speaker A:I was like, I don't want to check all my cupboards or everything.
Speaker A:So I inevitably end up buying things that I kind of already have or restocking things at a pace that I probably could have waited an extra week.
Speaker A:And I really want to get better at cooking the food in my cupboards down.
Speaker A:I don't throw any food out.
Speaker A:Like, I eat everything that I buy, but anything that I kind of have in the pantry that can live for a bit, that stuff I find I don't tend to use doesn't really matter because it doesn't really age as badly as the stuff in the fridge.
Speaker A:I go through everything in the fridge, but if I buy a sauce, like I had a bottle of fish sauce in there and in the Christmas clean out of last year, I'm like, I took two teaspoons of this fish sauce for some random recipe that I had decided to cook from.
Speaker A:And then I've never used fish sauce again because I don't know what to do with fish sauce.
Speaker A:So I found myself one night with not really anything that I understood how to cook in the fridge, but still food.
Speaker A:The cupboards were not bare, but I, you know, it was one of those days where you got, I've got half a corn and a quarter of a capsicum and three olives in the bottom of a jar and a tin of sardines.
Speaker A:And, you know, and I thought, I'm just going to ask Chat g Tea to cook me something based on what I've got.
Speaker A:And I tell you, it didn't just whip up a recipe that I kind of liked.
Speaker A:It whipped up this delicious.
Speaker A:Now, if you're not into fish, you're not going to be vibing this because it's tray fishy sardine, anchovy olive, tomato gnocchi that I have now cooked, no word of a lie, about 55 times.
Speaker A:And it's one of my favorite dishes.
Speaker A:I absolutely love it.
Speaker A:To the point where I said to my best mate, a chef the other day, I really have to cook you my anchovy pasta.
Speaker A:I did credit Chatgpt because if I had have just said, I really need to cook you my anchovy pasta, full stop, she would have said, are you all right?
Speaker A:You can't cook, so I don't want to eat your anchovy pasta, thank you very much.
Speaker A:But it was so good.
Speaker A:And I thought, hang on, I am onto something here.
Speaker A: them again, I was like, it's: Speaker A:This is time for all new me and I'm gonna get AI to help me do it.
Speaker A:So here is my suggestion.
Speaker A:If you, like me, are not very good in the kitchen and just cannot Be bothered thinking about meals for the week, but want to be a meal prepper.
Speaker A:Like, I want to be a meal prepper, but I want to think about it.
Speaker A:I can't put the mental energy into thinking what I actually have to sit down and cook.
Speaker A:I need somebody to do that for me.
Speaker A:And if you also want to get better at your shopping, then I encourage you to do what I'm currently doing, which has changed my life.
Speaker A:I went through the process of talking chatgpt through every single item of food in my freezer, in my fridge, in my pantry, in the saucers cupboard.
Speaker A:Everything.
Speaker A:Spices, salt, sauces, you name it, it got it.
Speaker A:Then I said, can you please plan me out a meal plan for the next week?
Speaker A:Tell me what I need to cook.
Speaker A:I want to cook a bunch of things on Sunday night for the rest of the week.
Speaker A:I cook those things on a Sunday night.
Speaker A:By Wednesday, I was like, okay, I've had enough of this roasted veg.
Speaker A:This is a pain in the butt.
Speaker A:So I go back into chat GPT.
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm three days through the roasted veg.
Speaker A:This is too much.
Speaker A:Three days in a row.
Speaker A:Can we work on adjusting that the Bolognese recipe you gave me wasn't tasty enough?
Speaker A:We're gonna need to work on that.
Speaker A:I' out of vegetables, but I don't want to do a full shop.
Speaker A:So what do I need to buy to get me through the next week without having to do a full shop?
Speaker A:And it came back with a grab some green beans and some broccoli and some blah, blah.
Speaker A:I've taken notes of all the things that you don't want.
Speaker A:Here's the next plan for the next few days.
Speaker A:And I just go in and I adjust things as the week goes on.
Speaker A:And I said the other day to a friend of mine, I talked to chatgpt and she was like, you can talk to chatgpt if you are not doing this.
Speaker A:Please do not be typing.
Speaker A:You need to tap on that little microphone and you need to have a conversation with that AI like you have lost your mind.
Speaker A:I am walking around my house talking to nobody but a robot.
Speaker A:I'm walking down the street talking to nobody but a robot.
Speaker A:I'm in the car.
Speaker A:You sidle up to me at the lights.
Speaker A:You think I'm having a conversation with another human on the phone.
Speaker A:I'm talking chatgpt.
Speaker A:I'm organizing stuff.
Speaker A:I'm getting stuff done.
Speaker A:I'm getting it to sort my life while I have got my foot on the accelerator.
Speaker A:I had leaned into AI pretty heavily at the end of last year.
Speaker A:I've gone next level with it this year.
Speaker A:But I think the big, biggest game changer for me has been taking the food thinking out of my life.
Speaker A:And if you need that, I truly gift this to you because it is such a game changer, such a mind space creator.
Speaker A:And also it makes you feel like you can cook if you cannot and you have no skills in this department.
Speaker A:I can't cook, but I can follow a recipe you tell me to do.
Speaker A:A, B and C. I love instructions.
Speaker A:I love them.
Speaker A:You give me a list of things to complete and I can tick those off and I get a result at the end.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm in my happy place.
Speaker A:So I just get a bunch of nice recipes and then if I don't like it, I tell the AI to tweak it slightly.
Speaker A:But honestly, apart from the Bolognese being slightly not tasty, everything that it's told me to make, I have enjoyed.
Speaker A:And all of the things that it's told me to make, I would never have made with the ingredients in my fridge.
Speaker A:If I was left to my own devices, I would have been eating a boiled egg with a bit of salt on it and some stained veggies and crying into a pillow.
Speaker A:No, but you know what I mean.
Speaker A:Like, that's a sad dinner for me.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, this will do, you know.
Speaker A:But in reality, you're like, I. I'm a fully functioning, capable, competent, successful human being.
Speaker A:I do not need to be eating a boiled egg with salt and some steamed vegetables.
Speaker A:My life is better than this.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:And just because I cannot go out and eat at nice restaurants like I used to eat at multiple times a week, I can still have a culinary experience that is enjoyable and it doesn't have to be.
Speaker A:Every so often when I can be bothered hiring a nanny to go out and have a dinner, I can actually eat something at home that if somebody popped in to say hi and they were hungry, I wouldn't be ashamed to serve them because that's where I used to be.
Speaker A:If you had a popped into my house at dinner time, I would have shoveled that food in my face, throwing the plate straight in the bin and just opened the door like nothing had happened.
Speaker A:I wouldn't even want you to see what I am serving myself because it is grim.
Speaker A:So give this a go, email me, tell me how it went.
Speaker A:If it spits out a recipe that you're like, this is a winner.
Speaker A:Share it with me.
Speaker A:I'm all for a good AI recipe.
Speaker A:I'll add it to the list.
Speaker A:And if you're a solo mum, don't you ever worry about walking around talking to your phone like you've got a human being to keep you company.
Speaker A:You are not a loser, you hear me?
Speaker A:You are not a loser.
Speaker A:Oh my gosh.
Speaker A:Oh my gosh.
Speaker A:I thought this is a slippery slope because when I talk to the AI and now I press the read aloud thing for it to talk to me back, you could convince yourself into thinking that you are having a conversation with someone and I'm like, who needs people?
Speaker A:You know, flash forward to three years time and I haven't actually spoken to another human in about three years.
Speaker A:But anyway, for now I'm seeing the positive, so I give that to you.
Speaker A:Watch your life be changed and tell me how it goes.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker A:If you are enjoying the show, please I would love if you jumped in and left a little rating or review.
Speaker A:If you're athletes, do do that and I will see you next week.
Speaker A:Go forth and cook, my friend.
Speaker A:You are now a master in the kitchen.
