Build a longevity week in an hour on Sunday
The difference between eating well and eating accidentally is about sixty minutes of prep once a week.
The hardest part of eating well is not the cooking. It is the Tuesday evening decision-fatigue moment where you get home tired, the fridge has no plan, and seed-oil takeout is 25 minutes away. Sixty minutes on Sunday fixes this permanently.
The Sunday routine
- 1. Soak beans overnight Saturday. One pound of whichever bean you feel like (chickpeas, cannellini, black beans, French green lentils need no soaking).
- 2. Sunday morning: drain, cover with water + bay leaf + garlic clove + quarter of an onion + good pour of olive oil + big pinch of salt. Simmer covered for 60-90 minutes until tender. Done.
- 3. While beans simmer: roast one sheet pan of vegetables (whatever looks good — beets, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato). 400°F, 35 minutes, olive oil, salt.
- 4. Also: boil one pot of farro or quinoa or sprouted brown rice, 25-30 minutes, done.
- 5. Also: wash and spin 2 heads of leafy greens (lacinato kale, romaine, arugula).
- 6. Also: make one big jar of vinaigrette — 3 parts olive oil, 1 part sherry vinegar, 1 Dijon, 1 garlic clove, salt. Shake. Lasts 2 weeks in the fridge.
What Sunday gives you
- Monday lunch: beans + roasted veg + greens + vinaigrette, warmed.
- Tuesday dinner: pan-seared wild salmon on the bed of beans + veg.
- Wednesday lunch: same, with a jammy egg on top.
- Thursday dinner: beans smashed into a soup with olive oil, lemon, parsley.
- Friday dinner: whatever is left, combined, with a piece of hard cheese and sourdough.
Five meals in the fridge. An hour of work. No Tuesday-night decision fatigue. Almost no dishes to wash — one sheet pan, one pot, one big bowl.
The rule that makes it work
Every Sunday meal-prep session you ever do should end with at least one of: beans, grains, roasted vegetables. If you have those three things in the fridge on Monday morning, you can improvise every other meal of the week without thinking.
Do not over-prep. Don't cook eight meals in labeled containers for the week. That's meal-prep-as-identity and it burns out fast. Cook the components. Improvise the meals.