Here's Exactly What Jennifer Garner Eats in a Day

I’m just going to say it—not liking Jennifer Garner is equivalent to not liking puppies or chocolate. The world loves Jennifer Garner not just because she’s another beautiful Hollywood actress but because she is totally relatable and kinda quirky.

But she's also in great shape. It's no surprise: Garner often works with celebrity nutritionist Kelly LeVeque to get ready for movie and TV roles, which means lots of clean eating. LeVeque lives by the “Fab Four” concept, where one prioritizes protein, fat, fiber, and greens at every meal. But it seems like she doesn’t constrain herself to a restrictive diet plan of any kind most of the time based on her social media.

If you tune in to Garner’s #PretendCookingShow on Instagram, you’ll find her cooking all sorts of delicious meals, snacks, and treats in her amazing kitchen, telling us she lets her taste buds (and whatever is currently growing in her garden) guide her eating choices instead of a list of rules of what and what not to eat.

Here’s what one could expect to find being served in Garner’s kitchen on a given day:

Breakfast

• “Fab Four” Smoothie with collagen protein powder, flax and chia seeds, almond butter, almond milk, spinach, ice, and blueberries

• Her favorite Homemade Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal recipe

• Coffee and homemade bagels

I’m all for this hodgepodge collection of go-to breakfasts. Some days you’re feeling healthy and fabulous and you’re up for a collagen protein powder smoothie, and some days you just need a hot cup of coffee and a fluffy bagel with All. The. Gluten. She also keeps backyard chickens, so you know there is a seriously fresh vegetable omelet being whipped up on occasion.

We think she’d just love our Ultimate Healthy Breakfast Recipe to fuel her workouts and our Spinach-Artichoke Strata for a cozy weekend morning.

Lunch/Dinner

• A monster salad with a mix of green, fresh veggies, a vegetarian fat source, brown rice, chicken, and a simple oil and vinegar dressing

• Soups and chilis

• Homemade pizza with all the veggies

• Pasta Bolognese

• Anything on the lighter side from an Ina Garten cookbook

• Homemade fish sticks (and probably more veggies)

Once again, I am here for this. In case you missed it, Jennifer Garner is obsessed with Ina Garten (she even appeared in last year's Barefoot Contessa Thanksgiving special! and uses whatever’s in her garden to make a truly nourishing meal a la the Barefoot Contessa. From this list, it looks like she’s not afraid of gluten, dairy, real butter, or any of the other “no-no’s” of diet world. Plus, she enjoys fish sticks for good measure. Love that.

Garner would be a big fan of our Healthy Soup Recipes and 300-Calorie Pasta Dishes for low-stress yet healthy weeknight meals. And our Mushroom and Arugula pizza is a perfect way to use up those greens without making another salad.

Interested in learning about the diets of your other favorite stars?

• Here’s What Jennifer Anniston Eats in a Day—Is it Healthy?

• Here’s Exactly What J.Lo Eats in a Day—But Is it Healthy?

• This Gut-Healthy Diet Plan Helped Drew Barrymore Lose 25 Pounds

Snacks

• Popcorn

• Homemade beet chips

• Kid-friendly granola

• Chips and salsa

No sad handful of meticulously counted almonds here! These are all great snacks to share with your kids, and give them a liking for healthy foods like veggies and whole grains at a young age. Garner even has a line of organic baby food, so we know she starts ‘em young on the healthy stuff.

We think Garner would love snacking on our Umami Popcorn when she’s in the mood for something savory, and our healthy Big Batch Granola for sharing with the fam.

Indulgences

• Homemade ice cream

• Baked goods of pretty much any kind

• Burger and fries

Oh yeah, she doesn’t mess around when it comes to occasionally indulging her sweet tooth. It’s not likely she does it all the time (as it may seem on her Instagram account), but she certainly makes it count when her sweet tooth is calling.

Garner is an avid home baker and makes all kinds of delicious treats like chocolate chip bread and chocolate sheet cake (a personal favorite). She even makes her own homemade mint ice cream from her herb garden in the summer—how idyllic!

Plus, she was spotted happily enjoying a burger and fries from In-and-Out with her gal pal/role model Ina. This is the wholesome friendship America needs.

We think she and Ina would go crazy over our Cherry-Goat Cheese Ice Cream and our stunning Ultimate Decadent Chocolate Cake when they are treating themselves to a girls’ day.

Final Thoughts

I reached out Cooking Light and EatingWell’s Nutrition Editor, Lisa Valente, MS, RD, to get her thoughts on Garner’s diet. Looks like she’s a fan of her eating style too!

“I love Garner’s approach to food and cooking,” Valente says. “She seems to really enjoy being in her kitchen and making treats from scratch. Then she balances that out with salads, oatmeal and veggies. Don’t change, Jennifer!”

Valente praises Garner for her healthy, well-rounded approach to her diet, as she notes lots of celebrities seem to have unrealistic and overly strict eating habits that would require some serious self-discipline to follow on the reg.

“Garner is a great example of the fact that indulging once in awhile isn’t going to hurt your overall diet. Eating your vegetables is important, but so is enjoying your life and sometimes that means treats with your kids.”