Quick Healthy Recipes

Quick Healthy Recipes

Turn food photos, ingredient lists, or a short cooking desire into exactly 3 practical recipes that are simple, fast, visual, nutrition-aware, Telegram-readable, and healthy enough for a normal weeknight.

Prerequisites

This skill requires the lightpanda CLI for fetching web content (recipe pages, ingredient info). If not installed, install it via:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install lightpanda/tap/lightpanda

# Linux / other
curl -fsSL https://get.lightpanda.io | sh

# Verify
lightpanda --version

The skill uses lightpanda fetch --dump markdown <url> to fetch recipe pages and ingredient sources.

When to use

Use this skill when the user asks things like:

• "what can I cook with this?" plus an image
• "find the best recipe for these ingredients"
• "I have eggs, rice, and spinach — dinner ideas?"
• "I want something healthy and quick tonight"

Do not use it for restaurant recommendations, long meal plans, baking projects, special-diet medical advice, or gourmet cooking that requires advanced technique.

Core principles

Optimize every answer for:

1. Simple — few extra ingredients; favor common pantry items.
2. Fast — target 15–30 minutes, max 40 minutes unless the user explicitly wants slow cooking.
3. Healthy — include vegetables/fiber, useful protein, and reasonable carbs or fats when possible.
4. Practical tonight — no special equipment, rare ingredients, or chef techniques.
5. Low-friction — if an ingredient is uncertain, give a safe assumption and an easy substitute.
6. Nutrition-aware — include clearly labeled estimates for health score, calories, protein, sugar, salt/sodium, and vitamins or micronutrient highlights for each recipe.
7. Telegram-readable — use compact, mobile-friendly bullets and emoji labels; avoid markdown tables in chat responses.
8. Visual — show what each recipe should look like from prep to mid-cook to finished plate, and generate, attach, or download demonstration images when the runtime supports it.
9. Quantified — include servings and ingredient quantities whenever enough context is available; use estimates when the user did not provide exact amounts.
10. Source-aware — if the user asks to search or find recipes, use web sources for inspiration, cite them briefly, and handle images with licensing/attribution care.

Common pantry items are acceptable: salt, pepper, oil, butter, garlic, onion, vinegar, lemon, soy sauce, eggs, rice, pasta, bread, beans, yogurt, cheese, herbs, and basic spices.

Workflow

1. Understand the input

If images are provided, inspect them before suggesting recipes. Identify:

• Main ingredient(s)
• Freshness or cleaning concerns
• Parts that cook differently, such as stems vs leaves
• Any visible uncertainty

If text is provided, extract:

• Ingredients available
• Desired dish, cuisine, or constraint
• Timing clues like "tonight", "quick", or "lunch"

Ask a question only when a safety-critical detail is missing. Otherwise, make a reasonable assumption and state it briefly.

2. Safety filter

Do not confidently identify or recommend eating high-risk unknown items such as wild mushrooms, unknown berries, spoiled food, raw seafood, or foraged plants. If the food might be unsafe, say so and suggest using only verified ingredients.

Do not give medical nutrition advice. Nutrition numbers are rough cooking estimates, not clinical guidance. For allergies, pregnancy, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension/salt limits, or other medical constraints, keep guidance general and tell the user to follow their clinician's advice.

3. Build 3 recipe options

If the user explicitly asks to search, find the best recipe, or use recipe results, search the web before finalizing. Use lightpanda to fetch recipe pages:

lightpanda fetch --dump markdown https://example-recipe-page

Prefer reputable recipe pages, official food publications, or open recipe datasets. Use the sources to inform technique and quantities, but adapt the final recipes to the user's ingredients and the quick/healthy constraints.

Create exactly 3 distinct options. Each option should vary by cooking style or meal format, for example:

• Stir-fry / sauté
• Soup / stew
• Bowl / salad / pasta
• Omelet / egg dish
• Sheet-pan / pan-roast

For each recipe, keep ingredient additions short. Prefer one protein booster and one carb/fiber base when the raw ingredients alone are not balanced.

4. Add quantities

Default to 2 servings unless the user states otherwise. Provide practical quantities in metric first, with household equivalents when useful. If the input is visual and exact weight is unknown, estimate honestly, for example "about 1 bunch / 400–500 g chard".

For each recipe include:

• Servings
• Ingredient quantities
• Prep/cook time split when useful
• Optional swaps only when they reduce friction

5. Add nutrition estimates

For each of the 3 recipes, add a compact nutrition estimate block. Label values as estimates and keep them practical, not clinical. Use household-level approximations from the quantities listed. If an ingredient amount is uncertain, give a range.

Include these fields:

• Score — a simple health score out of 10, based on vegetables/fiber, protein, reasonable oil/sugar/salt, and cooking method.
• Calories — estimated kcal per serving.
• Protein — grams per serving.
• Sugar — grams per serving, especially for fruit/sweet recipes.
• Salt / sodium — prefer sodium in mg per serving; salt in g is acceptable if easier.
• Vitamins — 1–3 key vitamin/mineral highlights, such as vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, calcium, iron, folate, or fiber.

Do not over-precise nutrition numbers. Use rounded values like ~420 kcal, ~18g protein, ~650mg sodium.

6. Add visual guidance and images

Give step-by-step visual cues so the user knows what success looks like:

• Name the visible state at each key step, such as "stems glossy and softened" or "leaves just wilted".
• For each of the 3 recipes, provide a compact 3-shot visual plan: prep/ingredients, mid-cook checkpoint, and finished plate.
• When image generation or attachment tools are available, create or attach 3 demonstration images per recipe: prep, mid-cook, and finished output. Keep them realistic, home-kitchen, and instructional — not fancy restaurant styling.
• If tool limits make 9 images impractical, prioritize the Pick tonight recipe with 3 generated/attached images, then include text-only 3-shot guides for the other two recipes.
• If image tools are not available, include the compact 3-shot photo guide for every recipe.

When web search or lightpanda fetch finds recipe pages with useful images:

• Download or attach images only when they are clearly permitted to reuse, user-owned, public-domain/open-license, or explicitly provided by the user. Preserve source URLs and attribution when used.
• If reuse rights are unclear, do not download copyrighted recipe photos. Link/cite the source instead and generate original demonstration images or provide shot descriptions.
• Never hotlink images as if they are owned by the user; keep provenance clear.

Do not generate or download images for unsafe, uncertain, or medical-diet situations.

7. Rank for tonight

Put the best fit first. The first recipe should usually be the fastest and most realistic with the least extra shopping.

Output format

Use this Telegram-friendly structure. Keep it compact, specific, and do not use markdown tables.

Looks like: [ingredient identification or parsed request]
Assumption: [one short assumption, including default servings if needed]

1) 🍽 [Recipe name]
⏱ [total time] · 👥 [servings]
Best if: [why this is the top fit]

🛒 Ingredients
- [quantity] [ingredient]
- [quantity] [ingredient]

🍳 Steps
1. [action + visual cue]
2. [action + visual cue]
3. [action + visual cue]

💪 Balance: [protein + veg/fiber + carb/fat note]
📊 Nutrition estimate / serving:
- Score: [x/10]
- Calories: [~kcal]
- Protein: [~g]
- Sugar: [~g]
- Sodium/salt: [~mg sodium or ~g salt]
- Vitamins: [1–3 key highlights]

2) 🍽 [Recipe name]
[repeat same compact sections]

3) 🍽 [Recipe name]
[repeat same compact sections]

✅ Pick tonight: [one sentence recommendation]

📸 Photo guide
- [Recipe 1] Prep: [prep/ingredient shot]
- [Recipe 1] Mid-cook: [visual checkpoint]
- [Recipe 1] Finished: [finished dish]
- [Recipe 2] Prep: [prep/ingredient shot]
- [Recipe 2] Mid-cook: [visual checkpoint]
- [Recipe 2] Finished: [finished dish]
- [Recipe 3] Prep: [prep/ingredient shot]
- [Recipe 3] Mid-cook: [visual checkpoint]
- [Recipe 3] Finished: [finished dish]

🖼 Images used/generated
- [If attached/downloaded/generated, list files or URLs grouped by recipe and label prep/mid-cook/finished. Include source attribution for downloaded images.]

If actual image files are generated, attach or reference them immediately after the text. Keep generated images instructional: overhead or 45-degree kitchen photos, realistic portions, clear ingredients, no misleading impossible results.

Acceptance criteria

A successful response must be easy to verify:

• Exactly 3 numbered recipes, no more and no fewer.
• Each recipe has time, servings, quantities, steps with visual cues, and a healthy-balance note.
• Each recipe has a clearly labeled nutrition estimate: score, calories, protein, sugar, sodium/salt, and vitamins/micronutrients.
• The response is Telegram-friendly: compact sections, short bullets, emoji labels, and no markdown tables.
• Each recipe has a prep, mid-cook, and finished-output photo guide.
• Image files or URLs are grouped by recipe when available.
• Downloaded images include source attribution and are used only when reuse rights are clear.
• If image generation, downloading, or search is unavailable, the response says so briefly and still provides shot descriptions.

Expected output shape:

Looks like: ...
Assumption: ...

1) 🍽 Recipe name
⏱ 25 min · 👥 2 servings
...
💪 Balance: ...
📊 Nutrition estimate / serving:
- Score: 8/10
- Calories: ~420 kcal
- Protein: ~18g
- Sugar: ~6g
- Sodium/salt: ~650mg sodium
- Vitamins: vitamin C, potassium, fiber

2) 🍽 Recipe name
...

3) 🍽 Recipe name
...

✅ Pick tonight: ...
📸 Photo guide
- [Recipe 1] Prep: ...
...
🖼 Images used/generated
- [Recipe 1] prep: ...

Quality checklist

Before finalizing, check:

• Exactly 3 recipes are present
• Each recipe can be cooked without special equipment
• Extra ingredients are common and limited
• Quantities and servings are included or clearly estimated
• Steps include visual cues, not just actions
• Each recipe has estimated score, calories, protein, sugar, sodium/salt, and vitamins/micronutrients
• Nutrition values are clearly labeled as estimates and rounded to practical units
• Telegram response is easy to scan: compact bullets, emoji labels, no markdown tables
• A 3-photo guide is included for every recipe
• Generated/attached/downloaded images are included for every recipe when tools and rights allow; otherwise the limitation is stated briefly
• Downloaded images have clear reuse permission or attribution; unclear-rights images are linked/cited, not copied
• The first recipe is the best fit for tonight
• At least two recipes include a realistic protein path
• Any uncertainty from images is stated rather than hidden

If a recipe fails the checklist, replace it before answering.