What Carla Hall Typically Eats In A Day

Carla Hall first made her way into the culinary TV world when she competed on Bravo's "Top Chef." Since then, people have fallen in love with her quirky, fun personality and incredible cooking skills as a co-host on ABC's "The Chew." As a successful TV personality, she can be seen on many other cooking shows as well. Whether you recognize her for her iconically-stylish glasses or beaming bright smile — you've probably seen her grace your TV at one point or another.

Hall has lived an interesting life thus far — having started out as an accountant and model, and then it was a game-changer when she attended culinary school when she was 30. It was always her goal to be happy, and not chase wealth, so when she wasn't feeling fulfilled in her accountant job, she followed her gut. That transition clearly worked out for her, as she's had a successful food career ever since.

With a vibrant personality, excellent cooking skills, and street style to admire, one must wonder what an incredible woman like Hall typically eats in a day. From deliciously unique meals, to hunger-crushing snacks and decadent desserts, here's what Hall's daily food intake looks like.

Carla Hall has glowing skin for a reason, and we suspect it's not just from a killer facial routine. She fuels her body with tons of vitamins and minerals daily, and that's thanks to all of the vegetables that she includes throughout the day.

She loves broccoli, and often incorporates it into breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For breakfast, she uses it as an ingredient in an egg white omelet sandwich. Most people don't get veggies first thing in the morning, but Carla Hall finds a way. One of her go-to dinners is air fryer barbecue chicken thighs with basmati rice and oven roasted broccoli. She also incorporates green beans as a side dish to her main protein, like tilapia. Baked sweet potatoes and zucchini are also in the rotation, eaten alongside egg whites or another type of fish. Even when snacking, she eats things like roasted carrots and celery. She takes getting in her daily veggies very seriously.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Hall excitedly shared a left-over vegetable soup that she had for lunch. It was made by her husband, and had fish seasoned with a sriracha spice blend mixed into the soup. She seemed utterly satisfied by that lunch, and claimed that it's definitely making its way into her meal rotation. Whether the vegetables are the main attraction or a topping to a meal, Hall is great at incorporating them throughout the day.

We can imagine that with TV appearances, writing cookbooks, charity work, and caring for her family, Carla Hall doesn't have that much time to spend over the stove (that is, when she's cooking for herself in her own home). We noticed that in many of her recipes, she uses the oven, air fryer, and rice cooker for her go-to meals. Those options tend to allow more time to step away from the kitchen, as you don't need to continuously watch or mix the food like you have to on the stove.

When cooking one of her dinners in an Instagram video that she shared, Hall shows herself putting her broccoli in the oven, rice in the rice cooker, and chicken in the air-fryer. "It's passive cooking. Thinking of how I can do multiples at one time," she explained. It's impressive that she can create multiple dishes without having to use a stovetop.

She is a huge fan of her air fryer, and uses it to cook her vegetables, meats, and more. "Everything goes in the air fryer because it makes everything so easy ... It's like a religion, you become a disciple of the air fryer," she told Harper's Bazaar.

One thing about Carla Hall is that she loves a good dessert. Her desserts aren't your usual cookies with milk or a store-bought bowl of ice cream, however. Her desserts are almost like another meal. They are creative, filling, and delicious. She humorously calls some of her desserts a "nighty treaty," and has it around 9 or 10 p.m. every night.

Her go to "nighty treaty" is made with her Ninja. She mixes almond milk, a scoop of whey powder, peanut powder, collagen, ice cubes, and dehydrated bananas, or strawberries (depending on her mood). She describes the homemade ice cream as having a PB&J flavor, and it sounds delicious. It's also nice and healthy, which is a great way to end the day.

During the summer, Hall has a delicious cherry shaved ice dessert to satisfy her sweet tooth. It's made with fresh cherries, plain shaved ice, and is topped with creamy condensed milk. That sounds like the perfect nightcap. For another Ninja recipe, Hall makes her own banana protein sundae that she says she is absolutely obsessed with. She mixes frozen bananas, chocolate whey powder, peanut butter, and almond milk into a smoothie consistency. She then tops it with fresh fruit and chopped nuts. With a passion for a sweet treat, Hall definitely has a great repertoire of desserts to help satisfy.

If you watch any of Carla Hall's "What I eat in a day" videos on her Instagram or TikTok, you will notice one common thing — she loves a snack. She sometimes indulges in easy snacks like peanut M&M's, Lay's Poppables, or Girl Scout Cookies. Most of the time, however, her snacks are much more involved, just as you'd imagine a chef's would be.

In a TikTok that shared her summer time meals,she made two delicious snacks that seem light and satiating. Her first snack of the day was homemade cheese crisp crackers. They can be made in the oven or air fryer, and are made with a hard cheese (Hall uses Gruyère), caraway seeds, sesame seeds, black pepper, and slivered almonds. The chips can be eaten plain, or with a topping like hummus or salsa. They look like the best snack to have while relaxing in the sun.

Veggie snacks are a staple with Hall, as well. Tangy chow chow, which is her own relish recipe, is made with a mix of vegetables that are marinated in apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric. Another way she snacks on vegetables is by creating a plate of roasted veggies that she dips into basil kale pesto. With a healthy mix of indulgent and nutrient-dense snacks, Hall covers it all.

Carla Hall is a very fit and active person. She practices Bikram yoga and strength training multiple times a week, and fuels her body accordingly. When looking at what she eats in a day, we noticed that she definitely prioritizes protein in every single meal — packing the power into her meals and into the yoga studio.

For meat protein, she tends to rotate between chicken, fish, and shrimp. Some of her meals are quite simple, using the protein as the main ingredient and adding sides to fill it out. Other meals, however, she incorporates the meat into a larger dish. One of her go-to lunches is a curried chicken salad, which is packed with protein and nutrients. It includes other ingredients like mayonnaise, mangos, cashews, and many other flavorful spices and additions. Those types of recipes that Hall uses helps make eating protein much more fun. Users on TikTok loved the idea of the curried chicken salad when she shared that recipe, and begged for a deeper in-depth tutorial.

Many of her breakfasts are high in protein, as well. She loves to have cottage cheese with nuts and granola. Cottage cheese packs tons of protein, with about 25 grams of protein per cup. When having oatmeal, she opts for a protein oatmeal versus the regular old stuff. For her "nighty treaty," which is homemade ice cream from her Ninja, she adds whey protein for an extra protein punch.

At this point, Carla Hall looks like she is the textbook example of well-balanced eating. We already know that she packs a variety of vegetables and protein sources into her diet, but what about fruit?

Hall includes fruit into many of her weekly meals. Sometimes she keeps it simple by adding it into her morning cottage cheese, or throwing some into her protein oatmeal. Other variations for her include mixing fruit into desserts, which helps satisfy her sweet tooth while also simultaneously sneaking in servings of fruit. In one of her Instagram reels, Hall shares a tip for putting vegetables on the grill. In the caption, however, she shares that she also loves to throw some fruit in there as well. She recommends peaches, pineapples, pears, and watermelon. That sounds great for a backyard cookout.

When compared to the amount of vegetables that Hall eats, the amount of fruits don't entirely stack up. She generally does get about two servings per day of various fruits — unfortunately, that's about half of what the American Heart Association recommends for an adult to have per day. The reality is, nobody eats in a textbook-perfect way, but Carla Hall hits it pretty close. We can see that she tries to get those servings in whenever she can, and if it has to be a part of her dessert, so be it!

Although Carla Hall always seems very energetic and full of pep on her TV shows, she's actually not being fueled by caffeine. Instead of starting her day with a good old cup of coffee, she opts for 16 ounces of water before consuming anything else. On average, she drinks about 80 ounces of water per day — which is perfectly in line with what Harvard reported as what the daily water intake for an adult should look like.

Hall doesn't drink coffee at all, even if she's feeling a bit of an energy lag through the day. "Surprise, surprise, I know it probably seems like I drink a lot of caffeine, which I do not," Hall said through a laugh when speaking with Harper's Bazaar.

Instead, she opts for tea. She only drinks tea, however, when it's accompanied by a type of sweet or cookie. Her favorite Girl Scout Cookie is Toast-Yay, which is a shortbread cookie that has cinnamon and a milk glaze on top. We can totally see her dipping that into a cup of tea for one of her midday snacks. It doesn't seem that Hall drinks many other beverages throughout the day, either. The only type of drinks that she mentions in her "What I eat in a day" videos or interviews tends to be water.

Carla Hall grew up in Nashville, Tennessee — so she's no stranger to comfort food. Many people associate comfort food with the South, and generally think that the meals tend to be unhealthy and indulgent. Hall doesn't follow that rhetoric, however, and believes that comfort food can be anything.

In a talk at Google, Hall elaborated on her thoughts, "Comfort food for me is all of the food that you might have in your kitchen, where somebody who loves you is making it for you. When you're feeling low, you go back to those food memories for that thing." She goes on to say that depending on where or how you grew up, comfort food looks different to every person. Hall's grandmother used to cook her meals with less fat, because her husband had high blood pressure. Because of that, Hall grew up eating a slightly healthier version of classic Southern dishes, and that to her is her comfort food.

Hall is so passionate about the memories and good feelings that comfort food can provide, that she even published a book titled "Carla's Comfort Foods." The book focuses on home cooked flavors from all around the world, paired with Hall's charming anecdotes told along the way. She has another book with a similar theme, called "Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You." This book has 100 recipes of Hall's special twists on classic comfort food.

You'd think that a professional chef would want to take control of the kitchen at home, but for Carla Hall, that isn't the case. Her husband of 18 years, Matthew Lyons, actually does a lot of meal prepping for their family. He is a yoga and meditation instructor – which fits with the chef's healthy lifestyle. Turns out, he must be great in the kitchen, too!

In Hall's interview with Harper's Bazaar, she said, "Let me tell you ... I don't even cook at home. Matthew, my husband, does most of the meal prep." The funny thing about Hall, though, is that she claims she's not cooking at home, yet she has shared many elaborate meals and recipes that she eats on the daily. She seems to take a lot of food that her husband makes, and then she turns it into something else.

For example, she has taken fish that her husband meal preps, usually seasoned with shawarma or curry seasonings, and she threw it into leftover vegetable soup. With Hall's innate instincts for creating unique, healthy, and delicious meals — we can see why having someone else meal prep for her still works out. She may be incredibly busy with work, but she still fuels herself with interesting and nutritious recipes, as we've seen so far.

When you're as passionate about food as Carla Hall is, you'd be eating at least six meals a day, too. Her main meals are averagely sized, but they also include her well-rounded snacks and nutrient-loaded desserts into her meal count. With an active lifestyle and healthy relationship with food, Hall gives a great example for what a healthy adult should eat within a day.

We've already gone into depth about her snacks, desserts, and breakfast, but you haven't even seen some of the delicious recipes she makes for lunch and dinner. Sometimes Hall sticks with the basics, and has a classic cooked meat with sides. However, there are many mouth-watering recipes that are in her rotation as well.

When Hall shared her summer meal routine on TikTok, many commenters shared their desire to see all of the recipes more in-depth. One of those recipes was a shrimp wedge salad that she had for dinner. This salad is filled with crispy grilled shrimp, tomatoes, corn, hot fresh chiles, and tons of other flavor-bursting ingredients. She eats it on a large lettuce wrap, and it looks so satisfying and fresh. No matter what Hall makes, she puts tons of love and energy into creating a good meal. Her meals not only fuel her on a nutritional level, but on an emotional level as well.