Ina Garten's Go-To Breakfast Couldn't Get Any Simpler

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Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa nickname references royalty, and she's known for creating elevated versions of ordinary dishes, such as tuna salad made with fresh fish and meatloaf-style burger patties that include both egg yolks and butter. So you might expect, then, that her everyday breakfast would be out of this world; Perhaps a medley of exotic fruits, a freshly baked croissant, and a mimosa made with yuzu juice and Veuve Clicquot. But, surprisingly enough, her morning meal is far more simple: She drinks espresso or coffee and eats oatmeal (which she makes in the microwave, no less).

Of course, Ina being Ina, she's not buying Maxwell House and Quaker Oats. Instead, she prefers a specialty brand of coffee from Dallis Brothers and uses McCann's Quick-Cooking Irish Oatmeal. To both of these items, she adds milk, but no sugar. She does, however, put salt in her oats as she claims that it tastes like wallpaper paste without this seasoning. There is one day every year when Garten unbends so far as to add maple syrup to her oatmeal: Her birthday. No word on whether she also throws on sprinkles and a lighted candle, but somehow we can't see her stooping to such frivolity.

While Ina Garten insists that oatmeal and coffee are all she eats for breakfast every single day of the year, she may be exaggerating; Or, perhaps, there are certain occasions on which she breakfasts twice. It could also be that — gasp! — episodes like "Barefoot Contessa: Breakfast Party" were actually filmed at a different time of day. Whatever the reason, Garten does have an extensive repertoire of breakfast recipes that she presumably has eaten on occasion, that are far less austere than her daily oatmeal and coffee. These include mini Italian frittatas, scones with jam and cream, slow-cooked scrambled eggs with green herbs, and buttermilk cheddar biscuits.

One piece of advice that Garten offers for breakfast parties — or any parties, for that matter — is to keep it simple, at least as far as last-minute prep. She recalls with regret her first breakfast get-together at which she made omelets for everyone, confining herself to the kitchen for the duration. As an easier alternative, she suggests a breakfast casserole like her raspberry baked French toast. This is a dish that can be thrown together the night before, so the only thing left to do the next day is bake it. Maybe not quite as simple as microwaved oatmeal, but far more likely to impress and delight.