Carla Hall Manifested Her New Role As The 'Quaker Oats Girl'

Carla Hall can now call herself the official “Quaker Oats Girl.” 

The popular chef and TV personality has always loved to cook with oats and now through her partnership with Quaker Oats, she’s embracing her new role ecstatically.

Hall, known for her upbeat energy and kooky, fun personality, was excited to partner with Quaker Oats because she’s loved this brand for as long as she can remember.

“My love of this brand that I trust really comes from my grandmother, my granny, and granny had her rolled oats every single morning and that’s something that I had started years ago, decades ago,” Hall told The Blast exclusively.

“And for 20 years, it was on my vision board to work with Quaker Oats and so I called myself the unofficial Quaker Oats girl, true story, so finally I can be the official Quaker Oats girl. It’s such a nerdy thing, I’m so excited.”

While many people eat oats in the morning for breakfast, not everyone realizes they can be used in many other recipes, including lunch and dinner meals. Hall shared a few of her favorites with The Blast, and demonstrated that oats can be used as a substitute for other ingredients as well as used as a filler.

“And think about it as a filler, like fiber, and think about it as an ingredient to hold moisture, like in my meatloaf," she said. "Or to think about it in an ingredient for a dessert and using it as a crust so you get the crunch and the chew like in an oatmeal cookie, which was another thing my grandmother made which I loved."

One tasty treat Hall makes using oats is her triple berry oat smoothie with berries, oats, bananas, ice, and water. 

“If you freeze the berries, if you freeze the bananas and use it in a food processor you can almost make like a berry ice cream and then you have the oats in there and it’s really fun to eat,” she told The Blast. “You’re almost doing something similar to an acai bowl that you can put different things.” 

And when Hall is tasting many different sweet treats when judging desserts, she uses oats as her secret weapon to ensure her blood sugar doesn’t spike.

“One of the things that I do when I’m doing the baking championship, I have a smoothie with oats, because it’s fiber so that my blood sugar doesn’t spike,” she explained. “That helps when I’m judging all of those desserts.” 

When you think about meatloaf, oats probably don't come to mind. But with Hall’s delicious meatloaf recipe, it’s an ingredient she uses instead of a popular one.

“Instead of using bread or breadcrumbs, I use the oats, because it’s gonna add the fiber but also I take the oats with my mirepoix, the onions, carrots, and celery, and then cumin, cayenne and all of the spices, and then I fold that into the meat,” she revealed.

“Instead of using two different meats to get that succulent meatloaf, I use beef, it also works with chicken so it still feels like it has that fattiness of pork and everything. Then, instead of ketchup, I add pesto and I add peas to the pesto. It goes so perfectly with the meatloaf itself.”

Another delicious recipe Hall uses oats in is her tropical lime bars. She uses oats for the bottom, like a shortbread. The way it bakes makes it chewy like an oatmeal cookie. 

Cooking wasn’t Hall’s first career. She was into theater as a child and eventually became an accountant. She quickly realized that life wasn’t for her and decided to follow some models to Paris. It was there that she found a passion for cooking.

“I was 24, I was in Paris, I was at a brunch with a bunch of models. I know that sounds so pretentious, but it wasn’t as pretentious as it sounds,” she told The Blast.

"I remember the girls were saying I make macaroni [and cheese] like this, or my mother makes it like this, and I remember thinking I have no idea. This is a dish I ate at least once a week most of my life growing up in Nashville, Tennessee and I don’t know how to make it. I started going to the American bookstore and buying cookbooks. I started with soups and quick breads.”

Hall said she would make meals and gift them to the people who were letting her sleep on their couch, and then started a lunch delivery service. 

“Really it was taking a recipe and doing it over and over and trying different things, approachable things, and making things that I liked,” she said. “That’s how it started and I never looked back.”

Hall first impressed viewers during her time on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars.” From there, she spent seven years hosting “The Chew.” She now hosts a new series on MAX, “Chasing Flavor,” where she travels the world to trace the history and lineage of some beloved foods. 

In addition to her TV hosting gigs, Hall has also authored many award-winning cookbooks and a children’s picture book, “Carla and the Christmas Cornbread.”

When asked what’s next for her, the chef had a long list of exciting projects in the works.

“There’s ‘Chasing Flavor’ on MAX. I also just finished filming ‘Summer Baking Championship’ and I know it’s early, ‘Holiday Baking Championship,’” she told The Blast.

“I’m going to be doing ‘Halloween Baking Championship’ in about two weeks, so I’m filming that. And I’m finishing up my children’s book.” 

For more recipes using Quaker Oats, visit their website.