Boot Camp Week 2: AI for Everyday Life

Use AI to take one recurring task off your plate: planning weeknight dinners that fit your time, budget, household, and real-life constraints.

Hey there,

Week 2 of the AI, Eh? Summer Boot Camp is here. Last week was Prompt Better, the foundation everything else builds on. This week, we point that same skill at something that eats up real time every week: dinner.

The shape stays the same. Run a detailed prompt. Fix what misses. Make it personal. Save the result as Prompt Card 2.

Six things every good prompt needs

Watch for all six of these in the prompt below:

Give it context. Explain what is actually going on.
Be specific about the task. Ask for exactly what you want it to produce.
Set your real constraints. Include time, budget, allergies, preferences, and anything else that limits the options.
Tell it the format you want back. A list, a table, short sections, or another format you will actually use.
Ask it to flag uncertainty. Make AI identify anything you should verify yourself.
Protect your privacy. Include useful details, but leave out names, addresses, and anything personally identifying.

Step 1: Run it

Open ChatGPT, Claude, or the AI tool you already use. Paste the full prompt below and run it exactly as written.

“I'm planning weeknight dinners for a busy household this summer, and nobody has much energy to cook after 6 p.m. One person in the house has a tree nut allergy, so nothing can contain nuts or carry an obvious cross-contamination risk. Give me five weeknight dinner ideas, each taking 30 minutes or less, and keep them kid-friendly. Present each one as its own short section with the main ingredients listed, then give me one consolidated shopping list at the bottom, organized by grocery aisle. Flag anything you're not fully certain about, like whether a specific product is genuinely nut-free, so I know what to double-check myself.”

Step 2: Fix it

You will probably get five reasonable dinner ideas and a shopping list. Look closely at packaged or pre-made items, because that is where cross-contamination risk often hides.

AI cannot read the package label in your kitchen or grocery store. When the answer includes jarred sauces, dips, frozen items, or other packaged products, ask it to identify exactly what needs checking.

“Before I shop, can you go through this list and flag anything that is likely to be packaged or pre-made rather than fresh, so I know exactly what to double-check for cross-contamination given the tree nut allergy in the house?”

One sentence, pointed at the actual risk. That is iteration. You do not need to restart the conversation or rewrite the whole prompt.

Step 3: Make it yours

Now choose one recurring task from your own life. It might be meal planning, organizing errands, planning family activities, building a household schedule, or sorting out a weekly routine.

Explain the situation as you would to a friend. Include what is happening, what you want back, your actual limits, the format you want, and anything AI should flag for you to verify. Keep it anonymous.

Run the prompt. Then correct anything that does not fit your life with one clear follow-up sentence.

Step 4: Card it

Open your toolkit document and add a heading called Prompt Card 2. Save these four pieces:

What this is for. One plain-language sentence describing your situation.

The prompt. The full paragraph you wrote and tested.

The fix that got it there. The follow-up you used to improve the result.

When to use it again. A reminder of when this prompt will be useful next time.

That is Prompt Card 2 complete. You now have two practical prompts in your toolkit, both tested against your own life.

Coming up next week

Week 3 is AI for Work, without the jargon. Same four steps, applied to something you actually deal with on the job.

AI assisted. Human led.

Always read it, verify it, and make it sound like you. AI is the first draft. Your judgment, voice, and values are the final layer.

Talk soon,

Chris
Founder, AI, Eh?
theaieh.ca 🍁