Staying busy in the kitchen! As the coronavirus quarantine continues, Ashley Tisdale is cooking up a storm and doing her best to stay healthy during this uncertain time.
“I have never cooked so much in my life. It’s definitely a lot of cooking,” the High School Musical star, 34, told Us Weekly exclusively on Thursday March 26, while promoting the Mate To Go program at Training Mate that she swears by for at-home workouts.
The actress added that she and husband Christopher French try to eat as “healthy” as possible, even now. “I am dairy-free and gluten-free already,” she explained, noting that she also recently gave up chicken after working on a film set on a farm where chickens were kept.
However, despite some dietary restrictions, Tisdale also knows that it’s important for her to be flexible and not so hard on herself. “I kind of had to be like, ‘Oh, you know you can’t be this picky when you’re in this situation,’ but I have been trying to eat more plant-based stuff.”
With that in mind, the Suite Life of Zack & Cody alum is trying to stick to vegetables and healthy grains. “I’ll do a lot of vegetables, I’ll do, like, brown rice or quinoa pasta, I’ll do cauliflower rice, just tons of things that are easy to make,” she told Us. “We did salmon the other night and roasted potatoes, so I’m really doing things that I’ve never really done before, which is kind of cool because I have the time to learn.”
When she’s not cooking at home, the New Jersey native is doing her part to support local businesses and restaurants that are struggling amid the coronavirus crisis. “I’m still helping small businesses, especially little boutique restaurants that I love that I always eat at,” she explained. “One of my favorite restaurants, they actually are doing a market so I don’t even have to go to the grocery store because they are giving me fresh vegetables. They have different kits and they have the best produce and they have the best meats, and I don’t even have to get out of my car. They deliver it to my car, so they’re making it so easy.”
Tisdale noted that it’s “awesome” that she gets to support local restaurants while still honing her own cooking skills.
While the Carol’s Second Act star also makes herself smoothies in the morning, she’s not against chowing down on a bowl of cereal on days when she doesn’t feel like cooking a big meal. “There’s obviously occasional times, like this morning, where I was like, you know, ‘I don’t really want to cook a big breakfast. I’m just gonna have some cereal.’ And it’s OK to have that moment.”
According to the “Voices in My Head” songstress, “moderation” is key. ”It’s just about moderation and let’s just try to do what’s best for our bodies and listen to our bodies in the moment,” she said. “If our bodies crave something kind of bad for a moment, that’s fine, but then let’s also feed it healthy things.”
She continued: “I guess the biggest thing for me is, like, don’t be too hard on myself all the time.”
Aside from cooking, Tisdale is staying busy during quarantine by breaking a sweat. The star turns to her trainer, Luke Milton, the cofounder of Training Mate, who is offering unlimited workouts for $99 a month — with all the proceeds going to the staff amid the coronavirus pandemic — for her workout needs.
“There’s this energy that Luke brings to everything and it just makes you happy and excited,” she told Us of the at-home workouts. “Like I said, it’s just so hard at the same time. I feel sore! I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
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With reporting from Carly Sloane
