Context is the background you hand the AI so it can answer for your situation, not a generic one. This guide explains why context matters so much, what kinds are worth giving, audience, purpose, examples, and limits, and how it helps keep the AI honest.
Weekly Meal Planner
Plan a week of meals around your diet, budget, and the time you have to cook, complete with a tidy shopping list to take to the shops.
Make it yours
Fill in the boxes and the prompt updates as you type. Then copy it and paste it into your AI tool of choice.
How many people, and any ages worth knowing
Allergies, things you avoid, or foods you love
The time you can realistically spend on a typical evening
How mindful of cost you want the plan to be
The meals you want planned each day
Your prompt
Please plan a week of meals for me. I'm cooking for two adults / a family of four with young kids. My dietary needs and preferences are: no restrictions. On a typical evening I have about about 30 minutes to cook, and I'd like to keep things budget-friendly. Please give me a plan for evening meals across seven days. Try to reuse ingredients across the week so nothing goes to waste, and keep some variety so it doesn't get repetitive. At the end, give me a shopping list grouped by section, such as fresh produce, tins and dry goods, and chilled items.
Tips
Ask the AI to plan meals so an ingredient bought for one dish gets used up in another later in the week, which is where the real savings and less waste come from. If a suggested meal does not appeal, swap it out one at a time by naming it, rather than asking for a whole new plan, so the shopping list stays sensible.
What a good result looks like
A seven-day plan of meals that suit your household and time, built to reuse ingredients and keep some variety, finished with a shopping list grouped by aisle so it is easy to work through in the shop.