Tracee Ellis Ross—Black-ish star, NAACP Image Award winner, cereal aficionado—still does her own food shopping. "I actually really love going to the supermarket," says Ross, who recently partnered with Special K on Nourish Your Next, a new initiative celebrating powerful women. "What I put in my body gives me fuel to kind of go and be able to make it through a full day or a long day—and how I snack does too, because certain foods taste really good in your mouth, but once they hit your stomach they make you tired. I eat joyfully, the same way I live."

Here, Ross schools us on dining solo, dating without apps, and the secret to her insanely glowy skin. 

I grew up on the Special K Diet. Any time you needed to be in a bikini, 'Okay, I'm having Special K for three meals a day.'

Let me tell you something—it's a good plan. 

It is! What does your perfect day of eating look like for you now?

I usually like my body to wake up before I have breakfast. So a bowl of cereal—but I have to say, my favorite time to eat cereal is in front of the TV at night. However, I do like a light breakfast. This whole thing that cereal is just for breakfast makes me laugh because I think cereal is good for every meal of the day. But I like a cereal or a protein smoothie for breakfast or a piece of toast with butter or jam. Then my favorite meals are lunch and early dinner, and I have a lot of variations. I also like breakfast foods for lunch, like quinoa and eggs—that kind of thing for my second meal. Dinner can be salads with protein in it, or I'll do a grilled or broiled steak or salmon, or baked chicken and a salad, or sautéed asparagus or something like that. The biggest meal of my day is usually in the middle of the day.

And do you have a chef?

No, that's hilarious.

DJ Khaled has a chef! 

I don't have a chef. I'll just answer that way! No, I cook for myself, or I do Postmates. Postmates in Los Angeles is the best thing ever. Does everyone use it here too?

I started using it in Los Angeles for the first time when I wanted sweatpants.

Postmates does more than food?

Yes.

Did not know that. I use Postmates or I cook. I'm a big cook. It's hard when I'm working. But yes.

What's your number-one specialty?

I'm known for salads. I am the salad maker. The salad over Christmas that had everybody up in arms was Boston and red leaf—and I'm a farmer's market girl—with shallots, raw goat's cheese, crushed Brazil nuts, and pomegranate. I love crushing almonds or Brazil nuts over my food. Get some texture, get some crunch, get some protein. Know what I mean? You gotta get that crunch. Crunch will help any food. Which, by the way, not to bring it back and be ridiculous, but the crunch on Nourish is top of the line, and in every spoonful—I kid you not—it's like there's some wonderful little Tinkerbell that sliced up almonds. There's like lovely little sliced almonds in every bite, and then there's like a cluster of yumminess. 

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Can we talk about dating? You give the best advice. My friends are sick of apps. What do you do?

I don't know, I've never dated on an app. I've never—you swipe this way, right? So Instagram goes this way [motioning up and down]; swiping left and right is Tinder? Which way are you swiping?

Mostly left.

Really? I swipe up and down. I just Twitter. I mean Instagram. Instagram and Twitter, I swipe up and down. I think one of the things that I really love about dating—because the truth is that there really are wonderful people out there—it's finding who's the right person for you. I think allowing myself to stay open and to remember when I just want to go home again and be home by myself, I sometimes think to myself, You're not going to meet—not even a new friend. Like you're not going to meet a new friend of any kind at home in front of the TV with your DVR. As much as it's great, and there are so many good shows on TV, and I have great books that I'm reading, get out and interact with people. You meet people. I've met great new friends sitting alone at the sushi bar—I have dinner by myself all the time. It's hard to meet friends or new people at the movies, but six o'clock dinner by yourself at the sushi bar is pretty great. I go on vacations by myself. You meet people.

So you'll go to dinner solo and vacation as well. Are there any favorite spots?

I try not to tell my favorite spots so they can stay my favorite spots, but I do love quite mountain-y kind of stuff. I love that kind of landscape, that kind of scenery—the mountains, the rocks. I really like that. In my job, I'm interacting with people all the time and there's always that. Being on my own for vacation and sleeping and quiet and catching up on books that I never get to read and all that kind of stuff. I'm reading a great book right now. It's called Station Eleven. It's actually really good, and I'm enjoying it, and it's really fun. I just finished shooting and being able to actually read a book is really fun because my brain is not filled with lines. 

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How does your beauty regimen factor into relaxation? 

Self-care of all kinds is a huge part of my life. I really encourage other women and other people to really put self-care—and that includes the beauty regime, how you eat, all of that—into your body. I feel like how you nourish yourself—your nails look great.

I'm looking at your nails because, damn.

It's honey gel, so these are my nails. They've just gotten really long. We just made them shorter because they were too long.

They're so beautiful.

Thank you very much. I've worked very hard on my nails. So my beauty regime is a huge part of how I care for myself. Really my beauty regime is about what I put in my body, so it's about getting my sleep and drinking lots of water. I love water out of glass, not out of plastic. It tastes so much better. I'm big on hydrating internally and externally, so there's a lot of oils and hydration that I use. I love moisturizing. I'm the girl on the plane who will go wash my hands, spritz, and add a layer.

What do you use on the plane?

Most of the products that I use are either Biologique or Cosmetix. Most of the masks that I use are from Biologique, and then there's one other guy, Julius. He's a German guy, and he has a beautiful line, and I use the gold line. I have a facialist that I've been seeing for 20 years now. Her name is Terri Lawton. Literally all of my glow and my skin, I attribute to her. She takes care of my skin. 

How many times a month?

Probably twice a month when I'm working, when I have all that makeup on my skin all the time. When I'm not working, maybe once a month. But she doesn't do extraction. She really just sort of deals with your skin and the juiciness of your skin, and I love it. I really do have to say that a lot of my beauty regime has to do with what I eat and my sleep. When I don't sleep, and [I'm] drinking—like having alcohol when I'm on camera—it just doesn't work. It's no fun.

Do you ever drink?

Yes, I do. I love a glass of wine. I'm not a big drinker; my body doesn't like sugar so much. I eat sugar. I'm not saying I don't eat it, I love it! So alcohol is something that's part of my lovely vacation time and stuff like that. I love a beautiful glass of wine.

What's your favorite?

I don't know, it depends. In the summer, I love a rosé. It just kind of depends. Since I'm not a big drinker I don't have like a, 'This is my go-to wine!' I don't really have that, 'I like a boxed wine! Just really easy to get to!'

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