Hurried? No time to fix dinner? Do you eat out every other night after your shift just so you don’t have to cook and the kids can get something they like?

It’s a scenario Chef Michael Prine sees over and over again. As the Chef at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City, Prine knows the importance of a nutritious, tasteful meal. As the chef/owner of Your Dinner Solution, a personal chef service, Prine can’t do anything about your hectic lifestyle but he can provide dinner - or lunch - at your home.

Prine, the brother of a local RN who specializes in geriatric consulting, can bring his talents to your kitchen and your family. Prine offers a wide range of meals at a range of prices.

"It ranges from comfort food to gourmet," Prine said. "I make a killer meatloaf. I’ve had people that say ‘I don’t like meatloaf, but I like yours."

Prine uses his talents daily as chef at OSU-OKC. He’s responsible for the universities special events and also for making sure that any of the 4,000 students can find a good meal when they walk into the spacious dining room, whatever time that may be.

Prine starts his day at 3 a.m. and ends it, well, whenever he ends it.

"It’s one of those can-to-can’t," Prine said. "I work when I can see to when I can’t see any more."

Prine’s pesonal chef service begins with a consultation. Questions like how often you eat out and how much fruits, meat and vegetables you eat each week are standard.

You can then design a meal plan and choose either the fresh service, standard service or the economy service.

Under the fresh service, Prine will shop for all ingredients and come to your home to prepare them. He buys all fresh ingredients and brings his own pots, pans and knives to your kitchen. He cleans up and lets himself out.

Most customers leave a key and alarm code for Prine to let himself in and out while you are gone. For three entrees (which serve two) and one stop at your kitchen a week Prine charges $175. All entrees are fresh and not frozen.

Daily service is $75 a day.

For the standard service, where some entrees are placed in your freezer, Prine charges $175 for three entrees a week.

The economy service is $160 for three entrees without sides.

Entrees are placed in disposable containers which the client keeps.

"The cost of our service is in between what you pay to go to the grocery store and get the food to a restaurant meal," Prine said.

Prine said the personal chef industry is relatively new. But over the last 10 years, he said it has grown tremendously.

"The society now is so down on people," Prine said. "I can remember when at 5 o’clock we had to be at the table eating dinner. It’s not that way anymore."

Prine promises meals to be custom designed to your tastes and needs, lower in fat and higher in nutrition and flavor. And the good thing is you can enjoy the meals anytime of the day or night

He can work around your dietary needs and provides special needs meals for people with dietary restrictions such as diabetics.

"That’s one thing about a personal chef, whether you’re trying to lose weight or have dietary restrictions we can just tailor your menu to what your needs are," Prine said.

Prine started his career in 1968 at the Hyatt Regency in Charleston, South Carolina.

He grew up in Enid and most recently worked in the Corpus Christi area.

Wherever he’s been he’s noticed that people don’t always eat they way they should.

"Poorly," Prine said of the American diet. "We supersize, oversize our meals. It’s become an issue where we are in obese society. A lot of people don’t have the willpower when they go out to eat to order sensible things."

As an example, Prine said the average American drinks 544 12-ounce sodas each year. Sodas usually contain around 39 grams of sugar. Prine said that works out to be 46 pounds of sugar each year in soft drinks alone.

Prine admits that his schedule forces him to eat out almost once a week. But wherever he goes he chooses a salad or a healthful item.

Americans have one noticeable hole in their diets, Prine said.

"Vegetables, people don’t like to eat vegetables," Prine said. "If you make them exciting they’ll eat them. If you make them tasteful they’ll eat them and it’s really easy to do."

Prine said he can whip up a batch of mashed potatoes, minus all the fat of regular potatoes mashed potatoes, using cauliflower, without sacrificing the flavor.

But in the end the choice is always up to the customer.

"We can only cook the food for them, we can’t stop them from going to McDonald’s and getting the quarter pounder," Prine said.

For more information about the personal chef service go online to www.personalchef.com. You can call Prine at 218-7075.