If you're a Food Network fan, chances are you've seen Ree Drummond, better known as
the Pioneer Woman.
So what does one of America's favorite down-home chefs like to snack on when she's by herself?
Here's what the Pioneer Woman typically eats in a day.
The Pioneer Woman isn’t afraid to go big for breakfast.
On her blog, Ree Drummond wrote,
"One of my very favorite breakfast dishes is Migas!
It's a dish I first had in Austin, Texas, and it's everything that's wonderful about
scrambled eggs [...] but so much more."
The dish also includes onions, peppers, jalapeños, cheese, cilantro, and fried-corn tortilla strips.
When she dines out for her morning meal, she likes to have the restaurant decide what she'll eat.
On a trip to Colorado, she was served
“[A] big pile of hash browns topped with pork green chili, a good layer of melted cheese,
and two beautiful fried eggs."
Though Ree was only able to eat a third of it, she thought it was, quote, "delicious."
However, when she's trying to drop some weight, she can go for SlimFast, according to a 2012 blog post.
Chances are she has coffee with her morning meal too, as she has expressed her devotion
to the beverage in an interview with the Food Network's Dish.
The Pioneer Woman’s popularity comes partly from being relatable to her fans:
“I’m not a trained chef, and so I have a level of accessibility.
I’m not going to show them anything that is beyond their skill.”
Her Nutella habits strike a chord of broad appeal too.
In an interview with The Daily Meal, she revealed,
"I always have a jar of Nutella, and I hide it well - because if I keep it on the counter,
[my sons devour it] in 12 hours."
That's not her only strategy to keep hungry kids at bay.
She also stacks cans in the pantry in such a way to hide other cans or jars behind them,
like the much sought-after jar of Nutella.
The Pioneer Woman diets on occasion - but not at lunch, according to her blog.
That's when she enjoys, quote, "eating myself silly."
So what is it that she likes to eat with such wild abandon?
In another blog post, she wrote about a Big Steak salad inspired by a dish she had at Dave and Buster's:
"This salad has a delicious, slightly sweet vinaigrette and is topped with sliced cold
steak [...] but what makes it irresistible is the pile of thinly fried onion strings
on top, which sort of negates the whole 'salad' angle, but I have to be me.”
Sometimes, though, she goes full throttle with meat and potatoes for her midday meal.
In a 2012 blog post about a trip to Denver, she wrote about ordering a steak for lunch,
served with mushrooms, French fries, and peppercorn sauce, with a Diet Coke to drink.
The irony of that drink was not lost on her!
Ree Drummond may not be model thin, but she's healthy and works to keep herself trim.
So what's her secret?
She told the Los Angeles Times that she has, quote, "mastered the art" of sampling whatever
is put in front of her and not, quote, "inhaling" food.
She doesn't indulge in midnight snacks, according to an interview with Food Network's Dish,
because she's a morning person.
Drummond is also fond of the small plate menu when she dines out.
On her blog she wrote that for her first meal on a trip to Colorado,
"[I] went straight for the appetizer menu, which is always my favorite part of any menu
because most of the things are smallish and you can fool yourself into believing you're
not eating very much."
She even took a, quote, "flour sabbatical" to keep her calorie intake down.
On a 2017 blog post, she wrote,
“I have nothing against flour [...] It's just that I wanted my jeans to fit a little
better, and seeing as how there was no way I was going to give up sugar or cheese, flour
was the only other major thing on the list."
So what would the Pioneer Woman have for dinner?
In an interview with the Food Network's Dish, she revealed,
"If it's wintertime, roasted chicken legs and broccoli cheese soup.
If it's summertime, roasted chicken legs, refrigerator rolls and cool, colorful salad."
She also shared that since it's too hot for full dessert in the summer, she and her family
have fruit on hot nights.
Drummond also loves going out to dinner with her family.
One night, when ordering angel-hair pasta, she blogged,
"It sounded pretty good: artichoke hearts, diced tomatoes, feta cheese, and - this was
the kicker - fresh basil."
Though the restaurant had to substitute spaghetti for angel hair and dried basil for fresh,
Ree thoroughly enjoyed the meal and was happy to be out with her family in her community.
Ree Drummond may be conscious of her figure, but not to the point of intense dietary restriction.
In another blog post, she wrote,
"I like food and am unwilling to deny myself anything delicious at this time in my life."
What's for dessert, then?
One of her favorites is pecan pie.
As she wrote,
"There is nothing like it on earth.
[…] If you've never tried it - either because it's not common in your area or you've written
it off as some freaky-looking nutty concoction - you must […] try it this year."
She's clearly a fan, but it's actually not her favorite dessert of all time.
In an interview with Dish, she revealed her ultimate guilty-pleasure foods:
"Any coffee-flavored dessert is a weakness of mine.
Tiramisu, coffee ice cream, coffee-toffee pie.
[...] I'll take it all."
Every chef has at least one food that they just don't like.
Guy Fieri only eats eggs under duress.
Andrew Zimmern doesn't like walnuts.
Even the Pioneer Woman has a food she avoids at all costs.
As Ree blogged,
"I hate, abhor, loathe, and recoil at the sight of bananas.
I've disliked them my entire life, even when I was a baby.
[…] And I happen to believe that this is some sort of genetic aversion, as both my
dad and one of my brothers share it, too."
She isn’t above cooking with bananas though, having made a delicious Bananas Foster for
dessert in Season 4 of her TV show.
It's no surprise that the Pioneer Woman is a meat lover - she lives on a working cattle ranch.
In an interview with USA Today, she specified how she likes her steak prepared.
"Medium rare is as far as we go in Oklahoma.
[…] If you go further than medium rare, it's a misdemeanor."
Does the Drummond family consume any of the cattle they raise?
According to Ree's husband, they do, sometimes.
They also buy meat from the store fairly regularly, but not the cheap stuff:
"I only buy choice or better steaks in the grocery store, […] so they are usually the
equivalent of what we raise at home."
But beef isn't the only meat that Ree Drummond likes.
Some of her favorite quick recipes contain a variety of animal proteins, including beef,
chicken, shrimp, and ham.
She hasn't always been an omnivore though, having been a vegetarian as a college student.
For the Pioneer Woman, comfort food is personal, near and dear to her heart, and a major part
of her show's wide appeal:
“It’s really food that people want to eat, right?
It’s comfort food.”
“It is, and the answer to that question is usually either butter or cream.
You know, why is this so good?”
On an appearance of The Dr. Oz Show, she said,
"Comfort food to me is, first of all, something I remember eating as a child.”
She added:
"There are certain things my mother made, or my grandmother made, and to this day if
I cook the same recipe, I just kind of close my eyes and I'm transported back to my childhood."
So what does Ree Drummond equate with her childhood?
When Dr. Oz asked what specific comfort food she craves, she gave an answer that’s probably pretty popular:
"Cheese."
"Cheese?"
"Cheese."
She noted that macaroni and cheese is a favorite on the ranch.
And really, who doesn't love cheese?
Cheese was on her mind during her pregnancies, too.
On her blog, she confessed,
"I've more than established that I am a quesadilla lover beyond any quesadilla lover in North America.
I crave them when I'm pregnant."
Ree Drummond is a pretty prolific cook.
After all, she raised a large family in a very rural area for years and has been on
TV cooking for what seems like forever.
So what are her favorite recipes, the ones she returns to time and time again?
One is, quote,"Comfort Meatballs," as she shared on her blog:
"I've loved them since I first sunk my teeth into them years ago.
They never get old!"
She also loves stewy dishes like meatball soup, broccoli-cheese soup, mulligatawny,
and classic beef stew.
Drummond also has a penchant for Italian-style dishes, like Chicken Parmigiana, as detailed on her blog:
"Nothing complicated or fussy about it.
The kids still love it after all these years."
Drummond also noshes on roasted red-pepper pasta and puff-pastry pizza, and, when she's
craving Asian food, sesame noodles or a spicy cauliflower stir-fry hit the spot.
As for the sweeter side of her palate, Drummond loves digging into sour-cream pancakes or
blackberry cheesecake squares - and she makes the bold claim that the cinnamon rolls she
bakes are, quote,“the best in the world."
Her famous use of butter may have something to do with their reputation:
“Drizzle on about a cup of butter.
And if you think you’ve added enough butter, just go ahead and add a little more.”
Living on a cattle ranch in the middle of rural Oklahoma definitely bodes well for steak
and burger lovers.
But given that Ree Drummond lived in Los Angeles for years, she has also developed a taste for sushi.
And since Pawhuska isn't exactly known for its sushi restaurants, Drummond had the sushi
brought to her in the form of her friend, a sushi chef.
As she explained in a blog post:
"Cody visited the ranch last week […] and spent a few hours deconstructing the basics
of sushi so that sad souls like me would have the skills to prepare it from time to time.
[…] Or every day."
When it comes to Ree Drummond's favorite drinks, there's one beverage that she treasures above
all else: coffee.
On her blog, she has proclaimed,
"Good or bad, right or wrong, I wouldn't want to live in a world without coffee.
[…] I start each morning with iced coffee, and it's the best way to start the day."
Drummond's devotion to coffee doesn't just take place in the mornings on the ranch, though
that definitely happens.
Rather, Drummond is the reason that her store, the Mercantile, is equipped to serve only
the best coffee and coffee-based drinks.
In a chat with Thrillist, she confessed,
"I felt that I really did this whole thing, just so that I could have a good cup of coffee everyday.”
We don't blame her in the slightest.
During the summer of 2021, as many folks were emerging from quarantine, Ree Drummond stepped
out looking significantly slimmer.
Naturally, when a celebrity loses weight, fans get curious as to how, and Drummond's
response was pretty fantastic.
For one, she wrote on her blog that getting thin was not her primary goal - rather, she
wanted to, quote, "feel better and have more energy."
Secondly, she listed the things she didn't do, including intermittent fasting, the Keto
diet, joining a weight-loss group or app, buying special foods, or hiring a trainer.
So, just how did Drummond get in shape?
She went back to basics, saying that
"Counting my calories was nothing short of eye opening, and for me it was essential.
[…] I'd completely lost track of the calories I was consuming on a daily basis, so it was
very helpful to get a handle on what I was looking at."
Drummond also weighed her food on a digital scale, which resulted in smaller portions
than she was used to.
And, of course, she exercised.
All showing that sometimes, the best solution is the simplest one, even if it requires hard work.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more List videos about your favorite celebrity chefs are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.