Invalid, shminvalid. What you need is some chicken soup!
:)
On my gentile side, gingerale with orange sherbert.

Jasmine rice, Greek yogurt, quinoa, baked winter squash and roasted potatoes/vegetables. I've been eating alot of rice since I had a gall stone about 6 weeks ago. At first, anything I ate was painful. I'm past that part but I can't do more than a couple of bites of things that are high in fat, fried, etc. I dropped 18 pounds, a few more than I wanted.

Anything fresh, like the tomatoes I'm still picking from the garden or the Honeycrisp apples my friend grows.

I could eat jasmine rice or quinoa everyday and not get tired of them. I was thrilled when I stopped into The Wedge Coop yesterday and found lavendar jasmine rice, bamboo rice and black, red and green quinoa.

Rice pudding or tapioca pudding served warm.

Another favourite of mine is mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken, not beef, gravy....oh and mac and cheese but it needs to be really creamy and of course chicken and sliders (noodles) but the only one cooking that is me so I better not be the sick one!

When I am sick, toast with butter is my favorite thing. Thank God that's easy because dh can't do much more!

bumblebeez

You'd be surprised what DH can do if he has to. My husband has never been handy in the kitchen--he never had to be and it just wasn't his thing.

Well I had to have an operation and was not allowed on my feet for a while. I lost 10 pounds in the hospital because I couldn't eat. That man made me full meals--nothing fancy but good and easy on the tummy. He even made me poached eggs for breakfast every morning.

Don't sell hubby short. It's surprising what a man can do for the woman he loves. Mine stepped up to the plate big time and he grew 6 feet in my opinion

Growing up, sick days meant toast, soft boiled eggs, saltine crackers, and of course, chicken soup. Just the broth with some rice if really ill, once that is acceptable, a chunkier version with chicken & vegetables.

I still eat these foods when sick, but have added some others over the years.

Miso soup is both strengthening and easy to digest, as is rice porridge...Jook for the Chinese, Okayu for the Japanese. Basically the same thing, rice cooked in water or broth until it falls apart into a thick soup or gruel, but because the type of rice used is different, they do have subtly different flavors and textures. Additions to the gruel vary according to how sick the person is. Shreds of meat, egg or vegetables, vegetable pickles, sweet sausage or preserved eggs...any number of things. Plain, fluffy scrambled eggs, with Japanese rice, w/ kim chee and pickled plums on the side. Wonton or noodle soup.

John, if you've lost 5 pounds in 3 days, I'm rather concerned that you might be dehydrated. It's a lot of weight to lose simply by not eating, particularly if you aren't expending your usual amounts of energy. If you are sweating a lot, have had fever or...er....digestive rejection issues, you need to drink far more water than you think you need.

When people are sick in my house, it is usually a cold or a flu. The days of anxiously nursing your child through a diptheria attack, desperately praying for Balto, are over. For most of us. Thank God.

Thus my repertoire of invalid cookery is sparse, compared to the 1900's housewife's. I make speedy chicken stock, then feed the afflicted one broth (in theory, but no-one's actually been that sick), chicken soup, or chicken rice/noodle soup. When they're feeling like solid fare, we poach chicken in the stock and cut it up. Mashed potatoes, ice cream, tea, hot cocoa. Basically comfort food, on the softer and blander side. Not a fan of toast for the ill, because they're often eating in bed.

Rachellen, I'm sure some of the 5# is dehydration. I was rejecting vigorously for awhile there. I also had Teresa_nm, your gallstone experience sounds rough. It seems odd that you still have pain after the gallstone passed - or maybe it didn't pass?

Sick food is whatever the sick person wants....
Growing up...sick food was plain ginger ale and perhaps toast until you felt better and then the first meal was broiled lamb chops, baked potato and buttered carrots!

I think I am the only person I know who gained 20 pounds on chemo. Nothing tasted good....but I kept trying something else and then another thing. And since I was on chemo, calories were not an issue!

As a kid when I had similar "rejection" issues my Mom always gave me a Coke and a banana twice/day. Seemed to help & I readily gobbled them up. :)

/tricia

Chicken soup will cure just about anything.
Especially chicken rice soup.
With saltine crackers.

7 up is also easy on an upset stomach.

Jello.

Beef broth if one is not REAL sick.

Sherbert.

Potatoes, with or without gravy,
puddings, etc, can follow.

I guess it mostly depends on what the patient is recuperating from.

Rusty

John,

I'm surprised to see no mention of congee. That's what my Chinese friends made for someone recovering from a serious illness. It was the plain variety, just rice and chicken broth. I think it's good medicine.

Jim

John, I hope you are feeling better, drink lots of distilled water.

Oilpainter, the mess in the kitchen might make me even more sick if he were to cook anything. Or if he scratched one of my pans! (It's happened)

Actually, he is a fairly good cook, in a limited way- he knows how to make what he likes. When we met, he made a picnic for me on his boat of spinach salads and turkey sandwiches ( which is more assembly than cooking, but I don't nit pick) But fast forward a few years, and we were standing in the kitchen one day and he said "I hate cooking".
It shocked me. But I understood, and have never made or expected him to do any cooking. And I don't mess with cars, plumbing or electrical anything.

Toast and tea works for me when I'm not feeling well.

Ann

When I was a small child it was Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and saltines if someone was feeling poorly.

John - the gall stone was large and got lodged in the valve exiting the GB. It's also where some major organs are connected. GB, pancreas and spleen were inflamed. Kidneys weren't functioning properly.

I had been in extreme pain all nite and still went to the Famer's Market to meet doucanoe - my first CFer meeting. I did not want to miss it.

In Finnish we would call that "sisu." In English it translates to determined, stubborn or hard-headed. No kidding!! I had to cut the visit short and ended up in the hospital for a couple of days.

Teresa

Touch wood, I can't remember the last time I was truly ill.

Same for my now adult kids and Mrs.M.

Mind, I do have days when I feel like crap but describing it as being sick would be a stretch.

I sometimes wonder if our diet contributes to that. Just for a little while tho.

Commiserations to all those who are ill or will be getting ill, I wish I knew my secret to share but I don't.

Chicken Soup with saltines
Plain toast with scrambled eggs
Vernors ginger ale

I was in hospital last week for breast cancer surgery and was amazed at the quantity of food I was expected to eat. Breakfast : baguette, butter and jam, croissant and a big bowl of milky coffee. Lunch was a salad for starter, meat and veggies for main course, cheese, bread and butter then fruit. Dinner was a thick veggie soup, then fish with veggies, bread, butter and cheese then a fruit salad or a dessert. I don't think I was hungry LOL

When Wolf was in hospital recently he had a week of being served this tray for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It consisted of a broth (could have been chicken or beef or something else,) followed by a vegetable puree with salt free toast and a small cup of tinned fruit, usually pineapple or peaches.

I remember when I was small and was sick in bed - probably with measles or chickenpox - my dad brought home a case (24 bottles) of ginger ale all for me.
Just that made me feel so much better.
But if it was flu or something that included feeling nauseous I just wanted buttered toast or crackers, sometimes with a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup,
(crackers crunched up and dumped into the soup.)
I also remember mom giving me soft boiled eggs buttered and chopped, served in a cup.
Sometimes I had a craving for Cream of Wheat cooked cereal with milk and brown sugar. Does anybody still eat that anymore?

SharonCb

FIRST - Grab a small trash can and put double bags in it with 3-4 doubled up paper towels in the bottom.

Gingerale over crushed ice and a zip lock sandwich baggie of oyster crackers.

They ask for it exactly like that. (the grandkids)

When my DD was a baby I tried everything when she was rejecting vigorously to the point of projectile.

Being a new mother, I was frantic. I called Mama and she calmly told me to boil rice in a little extra water and feed her the rice water in her bottle.

Thank God she kept it down. I was almost in need of a stay in the hospital by that time.

Betty

Islay, I hope you are doing better now. What a terrible thing.

The menu when you were sick at my house was jello, ice cream and coca cola! Then you progressed to whatever you most wanted if you could keep that down! Right now my 90 year old Dad is recuperating from a bad infection and I am cooking every kind of comfort food I can think of that he likes to tempt his appetite...stuff like tapioca pudding, A casserole called Baked spaghetti that my mother used to make, homemade soups and of course he eats a tastykake every day!

Thank you, bumblebeez - recovering just fine. Must be all that food! LOL

When I was a kid it was Campbell's chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers, homemade chicken soup if I was really lucky, jello and Coca Cola or Seven-Up.

These days if I'm a little under the weather I have chicken broth if I don't already have some homemade chicken soup, potato soup, saltines and ginger-ale if I'm nauseated.

When I was pregnant and nauseated every morning it was tomato juice and saltines.

Seldom am I so sick that I couldn't have a regular meal. More often I just don't have an appetite so sometimes I force myself to eat some toast, possibly some soup, but soup usually gives me the trots so if I'm not feeling great I don't like the 20 yard dash. I do try to force myself to drink water after being dehydrated a couple times, once requiring hospitalization, I don't like going through that again.

Soup is good for opening up the sinuses though but I'd prefer they weren't dripping while I was trying to eat!

Anyone ready for din-din? :D

Chicken soup of course. But it must be homemade. Where the chcken meat, the bones (bones to be removed later from the soup of course), and the vegetables like carrots and onions have had all their nutrients extracted into the broth. It's even better if you can use organic free range chickens that haven't been eating fillers and fatteners and hormones. Also, nothing canned will work, unless it's the placebo effect.

You may find this article from The New York Times interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: NYT Article The Science of Chicken Soup

Darn - the link to the original recipe that contained sweet potatoes is no longer there! I'm sure that homemade is better. But the article did say the researchers tried some commercial brands and some had similar results.

By the time I am that sick, I am also too sick to make homemade soup - even if there is broth in the freezer. But fortunetely the Crossroads Deli is just 2 blocks away and they deliver. One of the toughest food critics for the local paper rated the matzo ball soup the best he has ever had other than his mother's soup and outside of NY.

As a kid Mom would give us coke/7-up, saltine crackers, chicken soup or broth, and I remember jello too. That would be for the flu or stomach virus type of thing. I can't imagine eating a soft boiled egg if I had an upset stomach but that's just me. : ) I know some people say to avoid dairy products if you have a bad cold and congestion. Thankfully I've not had the flu/stomach virus or a really bad cold in ages.

David

Here's an abstract of the University of Nebraska study on chicken soup, which is a bit over my head.

Teresa_mn - here is a link to the University of Nebraska kinda cute video where they show preparation of the soup (the researcher's family recipe), and discuss their research. Here's the print version of the recipe used in the U of Nebraska study.

The video was interesting and the frog clock on the wall was priceless. I've never seen the vegetables in chicken soup pureed like that. I love parsnips and I cannot wait to try it. I also love the cheesecloth idea for keeping the poultry bones intact. When I make chicken or turkey wing broth I hate trying to fish out the pieces of skin that have detached.

Thanks Shannon!
Teresa

You know, I am thinking about assembling an emergency ''sick person chicken soup'' stash in the freezer. A single-serving quantity of pre-seasoned stock, cooked and shredded chicken, portioned vegetables, all frozen in bags, so it can be thawed and cooked and served - by a sick person, to him/herself - with almost no effort. No dragging your flu-racked bones to the grocery, no prepping with shaky hands, no shivering in the kitchen as stock slowly simmers. 15 minutes with microwave defrost and a single pot. It could be almost as easy as miso soup. Do matzo balls freeze okay?

"I can't imagine eating a soft boiled egg if I had an upset stomach but that's just me."

Me, too, David. Thankfully I am rarely ill. I am a confirmed hand washer. Maybe that helps.

I finally had to look at the thread. I was avoiding it as it sounded like someone might "baiting". Boy was I wrong! Am I the only person who read the title as inVALid cookery (as in the adjective, not the noun)?

;)

Crackers and 7up or Sprite. Urban legend round these parts says it's better if it's left out so as to lose it's carbonation. But if I think about it, isn't the bicarbonate the part that settles the stomach? People can be silly!

Rob - I see inVALid everytime I see the title of the thread. And I've read it.

Johnliu, matzoh balls do freeze o.k., though like most things, they're better fresh. I do find they are one of those items that having a vacuum seal system of some sort makes a real difference.

I generally have a zip lock bag of my chicken soup in the freezer all made up...I think there is less risk of freezer burn when the meat and veggies are frozen IN the stock.

I can tremble and dizzy my way through putting a frozen lump of soup in a pan on low...but if I'm capable of making it from scratch, I'm likely capable of eating whatever might be available in the fridge or even going out to pick up a good batch of Caldo De Pollo from my local Taqueria!

LOL about the "inVALID" as that actually attracted me to the thread in the first place...how could cooking be invalid, I wondered?

I should perhaps have titled it ''Cooking Invalids''. But then some of you would have offered brine or seasoning recommendations. And dcarch would have put together a lovely but disturbing plate. I think ''Invalid Cookery'' was still better.

I suspect that some of my cookery IS in-valid but it will be our secret.