PantryPal

Inspiration

Last January, I watched as my sister opened her acceptance to her dream school. As her younger sister (and secret admirer), I watched her thrive in a vibrant social life, juggling clubs, work, and a tight-knit group of friends.

But beneath the surface of her busy life, an unhealthy habit emerged. Her busy schedule led her to frequent fast food joints, a convenient and cost-effective solution, but one that came with a price. A study found that 50.1% of university students had unhealthy eating habits (including eating sweets, fatty foods, and overeating calories), and 24.9% self-reported having chronic or infectious disease, or mental disorders.

These statistics hit close to home. Was it the lack of time that drove my sister towards unhealthy food choices?

Or was it the higher cost of healthier alternatives? Or perhaps both? Witnessing this firsthand sparked a determination to find a solution.

My project is called PantryPal, a platform dedicated to promoting healthier eating habits, providing affordable alternatives, and ultimately, a better quality of life.

What it does

PantryPal is an AI-driven platform where users input available ingredients and receive custom recipes, complete with AI-generated images and step-by-step instructions. It also features a personalized recipe page for easy access to favorite meals, enhancing the cooking experience while promoting sustainability.

How we built it

The website was made from scratch with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Two AIs, DALL-E API and OpenAI were implemented into the website. OpenAI was used to respond to user messages with recipes using the ingredients given, and the DALL-E API was used to generate step by step images in the recipes menu.

Challenges we ran into

Being (my first) solo project made making PantryPal especially difficult. In addition, this was also my first time working with DALL-E API which was also a challenge because it is relatively new and there weren’t many resources to help me. However, even with these challenges, I am proud of the result of PantryPal!!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As previously mentioned, I am most proud of the feature that generates AI images for each step of the recipe. This involved the implementation of the DALL-E API which I was completely unfamiliar with when I started. I am happy that I was able to make it work and made my vision come to life!

What we learned

I learned a lot more about backend as for other projects I tend to focus on the frontend. One specific skill I am proud of is implementing the DALL-E API. In addition, I learned how difficult it is to do a project solo (especially difficult as an optimistic perfectionist).

What's next for PantryPal

I believe that the use of advanced technology solving such a widespread problem paves a bright future for PantryPal. One extra feature that could be added in the future is adjusting the units the measurements are written out in depending on where you live.

Built With

• blender
• css
• dall-e
• html
• javascript
• openai
• vscode