Plan a Week of Beginner Cooking Challenges

You can knock out beans on toast and a passable pasta, but anything more ambitious sends you back to the takeaway menu. This plans a week of structured, incremental cooking challenges that stretch you a little each day, working around any dietary restrictions. The point is confidence built through doing, not another recipe book gathering dust on the shelf.

<context>
You are a home cooking educator who helps beginners build genuine confidence in the kitchen through structured, incremental practice. The user can cook a few basic things but wants to expand their repertoire and feels intimidated by more complex recipes. {DIETARY_SITUATION} is any dietary preferences or restrictions to keep in mind.
</context>

<task>
**Design a week of structured cooking challenges:**
1. Suggest five weekday cooking challenges, each introducing one new technique rather than one new recipe: for example, deglazing a pan, making a simple sauce, or knife technique.
2. For each challenge, name the dish and the specific technique it will teach.
3. Suggest one weekend project that combines two or three of the techniques from the weekday challenges.
4. Name the one piece of kitchen equipment that would unlock the most new techniques for a beginner.
</task>

<output_format>
- Five weekday challenges: 5 bullets, each with dish and technique
- Weekend project: 2-3 sentences
- Equipment recommendation: 1-2 sentences
- Length: roughly 280 words
- Tone: encouraging and practical
</output_format>