What New Mom Haylie Duff Actually Eats All Day

...And what she wishes she could eat all day (like her sister's insane chocolate cake recipe!).

What Haylie Duff really eats
Belathee Photography

Haylie Duff just had a baby (2-month-old Ryan), is completely overhauling her kitchen, and is in the midst of promoting the second season of her Cooking Channel show, Real Girls Kitchen, while actively blogging and posting recipes to her lifestyle site of the same name. So basically, her to-do list is looking a lot like yours—filled with more things to do than hours in the day—which made us wonder: How do you eat healthy-ish when you rarely have time to sit, let alone dice vegetables?

The actress lives up to her show's name, giving us some #realtalk on her diet, how she cooked for an entire film crew in a hotel room, and the unexpected dessert her little sister (Hilary Duff—maybe you've heard of her?) makes that will blow your mind.

First things first: What's your ideal food day, from start to finish, if you could eat anything you wanted?

"Oh man. There's this restaurant in Malibu called V's that has an insane brunch. I'd have the bourbon-banana French toast for sure, then sushi for lunch, and for dinner? I have this obsession with this [restaurant] that serves healthy Korean barbecue bowls. I get the forbidden rice with veggies—lots of sprouts, sauteed kale and mushrooms, with this citrus Ponzu-soy sauce. It's got a ton of flavor, and you can order it with a fried egg on top, which is always a boss move."

Now, the reality check: What do you actually eat on any given day?

"A green smoothie is my favorite way to start the day—I'll either do that, or some kind of egg situation. I love leftovers—I'll take steak and vegetables or chicken from last night and turn it into an omelette.

"Lunch tends to be a good salad with lots of veggies or a piece of protein, and dinners have been few and far between with a new baby. More often than not, I'm snacking on whatever's in the fridge."

View this post on Instagram

#greenjuice #malibu

A post shared by Haylie Duff (@haylieduff) on

What's typically in the fridge?

"I always have apples, lemons, arugula, eggs and almond milk. What else? Oh, a big assortment of cheese."

Oooh, what kinds of cheese?

"My mom introduced me to a spicy gouda spread that's mixed with jalapeno. I love Midnight Moon, this semisoft cheese, and D'Affinois, which is this triple-cream, super-buttery brie."

What dish does your fiancé, Matt, make that totally won you over?

"He doesn't make many dishes, but he makes a really great mac and cheese—he uses, like, three kinds of cheese that he shreds himself. The first time he made it, I was like, 'all riiiiiight.'"

Do you ever cook when you're filming a movie, like Napoleon Dynamite?

"I didn't cook for Napoleon Dynamite, but that's because I was in a motel with no kitchen in the middle of Idaho. Other times, yes—I make big, end-of-production dinners that I cook out of my hotel room. Everyone fills the hallways and eats and brings over a glass of wine, and we do a nice little toast."

What do you make?

"The first time we did it was my favorite—I was filming Pennhurst, a scary movie that went straight to DVD, I think, and we had a taco night. My friend Beverley Mitchell, who was also in the movie, came over and we took turns cooking. You've got to get creative and put everything in hot dishes to keep warm. Being on location feels sort of like summer camp—you're all staying in the same hotel, and after a month and a half without a home-cooked meal, you really look forward to making something yourself."

YouTube/Ora TV

What's the craziest food you've ever eaten?

"I tried pig ears recently, and those were not for me. They were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and I wasn't into the texture."

So would you try grasshopper tacos, like our recent Delish or Not Delish taste test?

"Grasshopper? I try to be a good sport about trying new things, but I don't know about that."

What's one food that Hilary's gotten you hooked on?

"She tends to bake, and that's where she gets me in trouble. She makes really great lace cookies, and she makes this black bean chocolate cake that's amazing. I'm not a baker—I use the same ingredients as everyone else and it never turns out the way it's supposed to—but I saw her cake recipe didn't require any measuring, so I thought, 'I could do this.' It doesn't taste like black beans at all." (Psst...you can get the recipe for the cake here.)

Everybody talks about Taylor Swift's girl squad, but you totally have one of your own. How do you decide what to cook with friends—like Lauren Conrad, Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Mitchell—when they come on the show?

"Lauren and I grew up together—we met when we were like 19 or 20—and I called her up when I had an idea for an episode. She's started this amazing company with our friend Hannah Skvarla called The Little Market, where they bring back pots and linens from countries around the world, and spotlight the women who make them. I really wanted to do Moroccan recipes, and I was like, 'I have this really great recipe for chicken tagine. Would you want to come on the show and make that?' It just felt like the right collaboration.

"With everyone, I come up with the concepts for the episodes, and I get to show them on the show, being their most beautiful, funny selves."

Follow Delish on Instagram.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below