Free guide from The Optimized Performance Lifestyle
Meal prep in 90 minutes
A private chef's system for cooking once and eating well all week.
Every week I walk into other people's kitchens and build this system for them. It works for a family with kids in sports, for anyone who trains, and for anyone who is tired of deciding what dinner is at six o'clock. You are not cooking from scratch every night. You are assembling from a prepared base.
By Daniel Edlund, private chef and strength coach · November 2026
The one idea
Cook components, not meals
Do not prep five identical boxes. Cook the parts and keep them separate: the chicken in one container, the rice in another, the roasted vegetables in a third. You build the plate when you eat. That is what lets you eat a different dinner on Wednesday than you did on Monday out of the same four containers, and it is how four people build four different plates from one fridge. The food also holds better kept separate than combined.
The session
The 90-minute session
Two proteins, two carbohydrates, a few different vegetables and the components of a salad. That is enough to eat well until Wednesday.
Shop the day before. Then follow one rule: longest job first, shortest last, so something is always cooking.
- 1. Set up first. Chop, trim and portion everything before a pan goes on. Keep the olive oil, the prepared ingredients and the salt within reach. That is what keeps your timing on track once you start cooking.
- 2. Oven. Sweet potatoes and a tray of vegetables go in first. They take 20 to 30 minutes.
- 3. Stove. Start the rice or quinoa next. About 20 minutes.
- 4. Salad. Prepare the components while everything cooks. Leave them undressed.
- 5. Proteins last. Chicken, salmon or beef, seasoned lightly and seared. Chicken breast takes five or six minutes.
- 6. Clean up. Count it in the 90 minutes. Leaving it out is how a realistic plan becomes an abandoned one.
The first session will run long because it is new. That is normal. Start with simpler dishes and fewer of them, then expand. A 90-minute session you repeat beats a three-hour session you do once and resent.
The order, at a glance
One heavy session on Sunday and a short top-up midweek covers the whole week.
Technique
Two things that change the food
Heat the pan properly. Flick a drop of water onto it. When the droplet dances across the surface, the pan is ready. Food stops sticking, the surface browns right away, and the meat comes off sooner and juicier. Meat from a lukewarm pan turns gray and dry, and people blame the cut.
Taste before you commit. Taste the marinade before the meat goes in. Cooking a big batch? Sear one piece first and taste it. Thirty seconds tells you whether the seasoning is right for the whole week.
Storage
What it goes into, and how long it holds
Glass or stainless steel, with a see-through lid where you can get one. One dish per container. The only meal to assemble ahead is a lunch box, and that one gets packed the morning you take it, not on Sunday.
| Food | In the fridge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked meat and poultry | 3 to 4 days | The USDA limit. Do not stretch it. Anything cooked with fat or acid sits at the longer end. |
| Rice, potatoes, pasta | 3 to 4 days | Cool them fast first (see below). |
| Roasted vegetables | A few days | Roasted holds better than steamed. |
| Salmon and other oily fish | Reheats well | Keeps its texture. |
| Lean white fish | Cook it fresh | Five minutes in a pan while everything else reheats. |
| Dressed salad | Does not hold | Dress at the plate, never in the container. |
| Cabbage salad with lemon juice | 4 days | The one thing in the fridge that is better on Thursday than on Sunday. |
Cool rice and potatoes fast. Spread them on a shallow tray with the lid off and get them into the fridge within the hour. A deep pot of hot rice left standing is the classic food poisoning case, and reheating does not fix it.
The freezer
The freezer is the backup
- If the week runs longer than four days, freeze the extra on day one, not day five.
- Anything headed for a pan or a blender freezes fine. Anything that has to stay crisp does not: lettuce, cucumber, a slicing tomato.
- A vacuum sealer takes the air out, and the air is what causes freezer burn. Sealed proteins keep their quality for a year or more, against a few months in a zip bag.
Weeknights
Dinner in 15 minutes
Reheat the starch and the vegetables. Sear one fresh protein or reheat one from Sunday. Dress the salad at the plate. Build it like this:
- Half the plate: protein.
- A quarter: rice, sweet potato, quinoa, beans or pasta.
- A quarter: vegetables.
- Fat as a condiment: olive oil, butter or avocado.
Mix and match to your preference. It is less about any one dinner and more about the balance on the plate.
The household
When the household does not eat alike
Do not cook separate meals. Cook one or two extra components. Before I cook for anyone, I have them fill in a preference list: hate it, it's alright, love it. "Hate it" comes off the menu. "Love it" anchors a meal. "It's alright" is the most useful column, because those foods work as part of a dish and keep the week from getting repetitive.
Shopping
Where the grocery money goes wrong
People buy too many greens and berries, which spoil by Friday, and too little protein, because it is the expensive line on the receipt. Turn that around. Protein batch-cooks well, keeps three to four days and freezes for a year. Spend where the food survives.
The rules
Three rules
I have never met anyone who failed at this because they lacked willpower on a Tuesday night. They failed because there was nothing in the fridge.
Recipes
Three easy proteins to start with
Each of these takes a few minutes of work and carries a lot of flavor.
My current favorite chicken marinade
Garlic, Dijon mustard, oregano, turmeric powder, champagne vinegar, a splash of lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Blend everything except the olive oil, add the oil last, then grill. Full recipe →
Firecracker ground beef
Ground beef with rice vinegar, tamari and sesame oil, and hot sauce if you want the heat. Sear the beef, then add the sauce. Fast, easy and delicious. Full recipe →
Salmon with gremolata
Lemon zest and juice, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil. Sear the salmon, spread the gremolata on top and finish it in the oven. Full recipe →
Go further
The system behind the plan
The Optimized Performance Lifestyle is the full system: how to build every meal, when to eat, and how training, sleep and recovery fit around the kitchen. 127 pages, 16 chapters. A Private Chef's System for Nutrition, Recovery and Peak Living.