Close Banner

This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

Ina Garten Has The Same Breakfast Every Single Day. Here's How To Eat Like The Contessa Healthfully

Author:

Elizabeth Inglese

May 17, 2017

Former mbg Deputy Editor

By Elizabeth Inglese

Former mbg Deputy Editor

Elizabeth Inglese is a writer living in San Fransisco, California. She earned her bachelor’s in english literature and cultures from Brown University and her master's in writing from The University of Southern California. She's the former Deputy Editor of mbg, and has also worked for Vogue, Architectural Digest, Bon Appetit, and Good Magazine covering food, health, and culture.

Photo by Brigitte Lacomb

May 17, 2017

Beloved Hamptons chef Ina Garten is known for her not-all-that-simple recipes. One dish the Barefoot Contessa does keep basic? Her breakfast. Garten told Bon Appetit, "I’ve had the same thing for breakfast every single day for 10 years." What could possibly be perfect enough to keep the chef so faithful? You might guess her famed slow-scrambled eggs or her favored lox and Brooklyn bagels, but Garten's go-to isn't found in any of her cookbooks. It's "coffee and McCann’s quick-cooking Irish oatmeal," the chef revealed. With "lots of salt" because she doesn't want it to "taste like wallpaper paste.”

Now we already determined it's not healthy to eat the same thing every day, so we knew off the bat that nutritionally speaking, Ina's breakfast leaves room for improvement. And we also know that variety is the spice of life, and oatmeal need not border on "wallpaper." It can be dynamic and satisfying with the simplest of additions. So here are five recipes we hope Ina (and Ina fans) will use to take their oatmeal breakfasts to new heights.