May brought a delish twist to CodePen’s monthly challenges. From grilled delights to sugary treats, the theme was wide open — whether you wanted to metaphorically explore “food for thought” or just code something that makes you hungry. I chose the latter. No metaphors here — just straight-up snacks.

So, with a little help from Santa’s favorite coding elf — aka AI, or ChatGPT — I whipped up a series of food-themed pens, blending playful ideas with interactive elements and the occasional weird twist.

Week 1: 🍔 From the Grill

The first week was all about grilled delights. And what’s more cliché than a burger? But hey — typical doesn’t always mean boring. Sometimes, the classics are exactly where the fun begins.

So, I leaned into it and built a good old-fashioned stacking game. You move the bottom bun left and right, trying to catch falling ingredients to build your dream burger. Lettuce, cheese, patties — catch ’em all, or watch your masterpiece topple.

---

Week 2: 🍞 Toasts & Snackbars

Food is full of cultural nuance. Some regions thrive on snacks and quick bites, others don’t — but growing up on cartoons, I was deeply imprinted with the glory of the PB&J sandwich.

So for week two, I embraced that snack energy and built a Snack-a-Tron — an interactive mini-machine where you can stack your ideal sandwich. Toast, jelly, mystery fillings? Go wild. Just like cartoon logic intended.

---

Week 3: 🍲 Alphabet Soup

If you’re a millennial, chances are you’ve encountered the classic alphabet soup — that “fancy” culinary experience where your meal also spelled out… something. So for this challenge, I decided to sprinkle a little fortune-telling magic into the mix.

Think of it like a digital soup-meets-fortune-cookie moment: letters swirl, a message emerges, and voilà — your spoon delivers a mysterious word from the universe.

---

Week 4: 🧁 Sweet Treats

Desserts, much like snacks, carry deep cultural nuance. And sometimes, trying to translate your local comfort treats into something universally recognizable… just doesn’t work. It can get weird fast.

So I leaned into that weirdness and birthed Jell-0 — a jiggly, gelatinous dessert-monster quietly digesting… a mysterious bone. Is it cute? Is it cursed? Who knows. But it’s wobbly, pink, and slightly unsettling — just how I like it.

---

To Summarize:

This month was pure fun. The food theme gave me permission to lean into the silly, nostalgic, and slightly absurd. From stacking burgers to conjuring alphabet soup fortunes, I let myself code like a kid in a candy store — no deeper meaning required (unless you count gelatin monsters as social commentary).

Using AI helped speed things up and sparked some oddball ideas I probably wouldn’t have cooked up solo. That said, the core of each project still came from me — my tastes, my humor, my weirdness.

If anything, May reminded me that playfulness is productive. Not everything has to be polished or profound. Sometimes it’s enough to just make something wobbly, colorful, or snack-shaped — because it makes you smile.