It's been a whirlwind spring for Ree Drummond, but things are finally settling down — kind of.
"The Pioneer Woman" opened up to TODAY Food about her husband's accident, being an almost empty nester and coming down from her daughter's wedding earlier this month.
"My husband and I were dead for two weeks," Drummond said. "It took us about two weeks to truly feel like we were going to survive. We were just tired."
The wedding was held on the Drummonds' ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a property that encompasses both their family's home and the location where Drummond films her Food Network show.
"If my second daughter wants to elope, that would be fine," Drummond joked.
She also gave us an update an on her husband's recovery following a fire truck accident in March that left him with a broken neck.
"He's doing really great," Drummond said. "I wouldn't say 100% but he's very close to being able to remove his neck brace. He's kind of gotten senioritis, like you get in high school where it's harder and harder to show up to class — it's harder and harder for him to be a good patient as it gets close to the date when he can take it off. But he's been a pretty good sport through the whole thing."
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She said it's been hard for her husband, Ladd, a cattle rancher who's always on the go, to be sidelined for so long. But his downtime did come with one perk: Since he couldn't work out himself, he became his wife's coach as she embarked on a weight-loss journey.
"He couldn't exercise and lift, which was hard for him," she said. "So he turned it around and sort of became my trainer."
Drummond recently revealed on TikTok that she lost 38 pounds. She told TODAY she did it by focusing on lifting weights, rowing, eating more protein and smaller portions.
“I didn’t do anything like keto or intermittent fasting," she said. "Those things work for people, but I knew I just had to tackle it scientifically: calories in, calories out. So I just started paying attention to what I was eating and the calories of what I was eating. I still ate the same things. I just really tried to eat smaller quantities."
Drummond spoke to TODAY on behalf of her Pioneer Woman Collection at Walmart, for which she's releasing a slew of new products during a live shopping event on Thursday, including a 12-piece cookware set, denim apparel, a floral quilt and an ice cream maker. In other words, "just some of my absolute favorite things," she said.
"I'm launching a denim jacket," Drummond added. "I think denim jackets never go out of style, since the '70s and '80s. I've been wearing them that long. So I'm excited about the denim."
She also just finished a new cookbook which will be out in October.
"It's called 'Super Easy,' and it's a collection of the kind of cooking I'm doing these days, just giving myself permission to take it easy on myself and use some shortcut ingredients here and there, and not put so much pressure to make everything from scratch," she said.
In the meantime, the mom-of-five is just ready to relax and enjoy summer with her family while she can.
"It's kids everywhere," she said. "My foster son Jamar is getting ready to go to college in two weeks. He's taking summer classes. So I'll be down to just one kid at home after that. Every day something new is going on around here. And I wouldn't have it any other way. It's crazy and chaotic and lots of fun."
