Hilary Duff on drinking, cooking for kids and her love of bacon

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At How I met your father, Hilary Duff hangs out with friends at Manhattan bars and trendy dinner parties. But in real life, the 35-year-old mother of three says she’s become “a short-term cook” in her own kitchen.

“Its hard. Some days are tougher than others,” she tells Yahoo Life about cooking for Luca, 10, Banks, 4, and Mae, 1.

“I had no idea it was going to be this complicated,” Duff says of feeding her sometimes picky eaters. “They all like different things and are all very picky. But Luca will live for caviar – when we have friends I’ll put down potato chips and some caviar and he’s so excited. So it’s hard for me to come down on her. They don’t eat cauliflower, but they love broccoli. They don’t touch kiwis, but they love apples.”

Among their kid-recommended meals? Chicken wings, roasted vegetables and pasta with olives and capers. “They love salty things,” she says. “But the second I try to put a little lemon zest or something, they’re like, ‘That was different.’ Once we grew bok choy and Luca was like that eat it raw from the garden, but once I cooked it, it was a hard no for him.”

While she’s “not the mom who cuts things into shapes or leaves notes,” Duff says she quickly checks the lunch boxes every day after school to assess what was a hit and what wasn’t eaten. “What was a hit? What worked? What didn’t work?” She says. “You want her approval of stuff and it’s so crazy.”

When she’s not trying to find treats for the kids, Duff works on a “in moderation” policy for her own food choices. “I know it’s boring and cliche to say, but it’s real,” she says. “I try to plan things like when I’m going to have dinner with my girlfriends or a date with my husband, I think about where we’re going to have dinner. If I eat sushi one night, I eat salad the night before to try to get greens because when we have omakase I don’t get fiber. I need to set up the equation and think a little bit more ahead as I get older.

The story goes on

Duff has also noted that her relationship with alcohol changed as she entered her mid-30s. “I used to be able to have three glasses of wine with girlfriends for dinner, and now I wake up at 3 a.m. with anxiety and just go through how I’m not doing enough or not doing well enough,” she says. “Then I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s the wine. That’s the extra glass of wine I drank. What the hell?'”

Sugar is also on the former Lizzie McGuire Star’s no-no list. “If I’m in a really good routine, the second I introduce sugar back into my diet, I don’t look good,” she admits. “My face is kind of swollen.”

Duff spoke to Yahoo Life as part of her work promoting Planet Oat’s oat milk and supporting the brand for Girl Scouts of America. As a former Girl Scout, Duff says the partnership is close to her heart. “It’s cookie season,” says Duff. “It’s the time of year the Girl Scouts sell their cookies and oat milk suits them perfectly.”

Your choice of Duff’s Girl Scout cookies? Thin Mints and Caramel deLites (formerly Samoas). “I’m a classic girl,” she says, “and I keep them both in the freezer. I know people do it with the Thin Mints, but I put them both in the freezer.”

Another sugary slob that Duff thinks is worth? A cheesecake recipe that she has perfected through years of experimentation. “Half my family is dairy free, but once or twice a year I make a cheesecake that’s like a epic, epic Cheesecake,” says Duff. “I got the prescription years ago. It has a blackberry topping and I’m very proud of that.”

In a 2022 interview with Yahoo Life, Duff’s said HIMYF Co-star Francia Raisa said Duff and her kids are big fans of her homemade salsa, a secret recipe Raisa declined to share. “A little Francia sauce goes a long way,” she joked.

Duff vividly remembers Raisa’s salsa. “It’s the best salsa I’ve ever had,” Duff said, recalling the party where she was introduced to it. “We went in the hot tub that night and my kids ate their salsa and they looked like vampires – they had it dripping down their faces like they’d bitten a human. And it was spicy — you know, if you’re chasing the spice, so you have to keep eating it or you’ll burn? They did and it was hilarious. I keep telling her she has to find a way to sell it because it’s so good.

So what’s Duff’s favorite dish? barrack bring to a meeting? “I love making dates wrapped in bacon,” she says. “Or my mom makes these little bacon-wrapped chicken bites with mustard and brown sugar [glaze] they are so so so good. We eat a lot of bacon at my house, if you can’t tell.”

Duff’s sister, Haylie Duff, made her famous in the culinary world Real girls kitchen Food blog and a cooking show of the same name. Duff says she would describe her older sister as “more of a natural” in the kitchen.

“I think she’s probably more of a natural cook and I’m a recipe follower,” says Duff. “But we both grew up in the kitchen with my mother and my mother is an excellent cook, so we both know what to do.”

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