Do you mean ill "like near death" or energy/emotional/exhaustion?

Do you mean hungry as haven't eaten for many hours, or need a snack?

For the latter, when I know I don't need protein or carbs and don't want fruit or yoghurt or cheese, I remember I have veggie popsicles. They make nice snacks.

When I just can't bring myself to cook and there's nothing to grab straight out of the fridge, I make a sandwich (but you don't do bread, though one could stack the filing on a lettuce or cabbage leaf), or find something in the freezer, or order in. We have lots of good things to order in.

Can you plan ahead to have something you can easily throw together to eat? I often cook extra and freeze in in portions for two. I also try to keep some grab and go things in the fridge for when I can't deal.

Good luck and feel better!

I found a can of B&M baked beans and microwaved them. DH & I haven't been well all since our flu shots and he had a tick bite with a big red ring around it - put on a powerful antibiotic that made him fatigued and nauseous .

UGH! Antibiotic eating is the worst! I'm glad you found something to nibble and I hope the fiber wasn't too much for your husband. The sugar is good for when you're feeling poorly.

Is there anyone (commercial, relative or friend) who can bring you some chicken soup and something nice to eat tomorrow? Can you just boil up a whole box of pasta, drain it and put it in the fridge? If you have a can or two of broth, put that in the boiling liquid. If you have cooked pasta, you can add some jarred sauce, if you have it, and put it in the microwave or oven. Add some cheese to the top. Maybe make a cheese sauce if you're feeling up to it. Rather than straight mac and cheese type sauce, for sick food, I like to make a white sauce base, and add ends, parm, and anything tasty--cut/torn into small pieces will work without having to grate. Add plenty of black pepper and thin with marsala wine. Excellent for what's ailing. But sometimes, nibbling on plain cool pasta is easy on the tum and comforting in itself. Or heat and toss with some oil and herbs.

Do you have some plain chicken you can warm up? That's good sick food too.

We seldom buy bread either, but I keep a box of pre-made waffles in the freezer for just the kind of occasions you are describing when I want something pretty bland. Toasted waffle and a scrambled egg work perfectly for me. Sorry you aren't feeling well.

Got crackers? Cheese and crackers always leaves me feeling like I no longer care if I have dinner. I wouldn’t worry about nutrition for a few days under the weather, just don’t want to feel hungry.

I always have some microwave popcorn around for such instances. Filling but not too fattening. I also try to have some frozen tamales on hand that I can just toss in the steamer and eat.

If I have that problem, I find I am usually craving something salty or spicy. It helps to have my favorite frozen dinners in the freezer. There are some very good ones now and there is no waste or mess cooking. They are not like the TV dinners of the sixties. Yes, they cost more per serving than making it myself, but I don't have to make it and I don't have to eat it six days in a row.

V-8 juice for nutrition, crackers soaked in milk with a bit of sugar for easy to go down, or a bowl of chicken soup that has been proven to help scientifically when you don't feel right.

There is a lot to be said for the staple Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Premium Saltine Crackers, and Seven Up. If you didn't feel up to the soup, it was just the Seven Up and crackers until you did.

Thank you so much. We have been working our way through our freezers and pantry anticipating several expeditions to stock up for the winter. We typically cook for ourselves, and freeze leftover meals so there's not much here at the moment. I do have pasta, butter and parmesan so that might be dinner tonight. One of us might be able to do it!

I normally make alfredo sauce from scratch, but last Spring I bought Bertolli Alfredo Sauce when everything was going crazy. I used it last night and it was pretty good. It was the "basic plain" one. It was not the from scratch with butter, cream, and fresh parmesan, but it WAS good and very quick. So, if I was out of cream and parmesan, I think I will keep it in the pantry. I normally make with blanched broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, and pan grilled chicken over fettuccine . Bird's Eye Frozen is not bad and if I could find a canned mushroom that was okay, it would be a pantry/freezer meal.

I had a horrible flu 15 years ago. Nothing felt right. No food fed my suffering soul/appetite. I went total childhood memories. 😂😂😂DH was disgusted by my shopping list. V-8, dinty Moore beef stew, (dog barf), canned ravioli, cereal, (corn flakes, grape-nuts, cherios, shredded wheat, captain crunch, rice Chex,) saltines, oof what a list.). oh, and canned chipped beef gravy. Scrapple, lol.

Different now. My freezer is full of homemade stocks, veg, bone, chicken, veg with beans.grains, protein....easy choices in a few minutes. I did this back in the mid-march lock-down. Still keeping the freezer full of fresh options easy heat-ups if we have a health issue.

Having homemade beef stew, chicken soup, chili, simple homemade broths, is comfort if one of us gets horribly sick.

If you are sick and can't eat, ANYTHING is okay at that time. At least you are getting something down.

One thing I have noticed, "sick" food seems to have a lot of salt and sugar. Maybe your body needs it to retain the fluid and for energy, and that is why it is so satisfying. Possibly homemade needs to be beefed up a little in the salt/sugar ratio. What would not be good day to day, would fit if sick.

Seagrass, sorry to hear you are both under the weather and don't have a cook to take care of you. Like you, I try to keep quick meals in the freezer (that just require a reheat in microwave) usually from cooking once and freezing the extra meals. I also keep a few cans of soup, peanut butter, and my favorite "go to" is sharp cheddar cheese, crackers and a good summer sausage. With the possibility of COVID, I've become more conscious of keeping stocked. Hope you get to feeling better soon!

I hope you and your DH feel better soon. I think it’s a good idea to always keep a few staples handy for blah or no appetite times, such as:

Chicken rice/or noodle soup

Ginger Ale or your own frozen mix

Cottage cheese plain yogurt, preserved or canned fruit in light syrup (pears, peaches); raisins, eggs.

Frozen vegetables (store-bought)

Apple juice

parmesan, simple, cheddar, Swiss cheese

A quick something if I feel blah is simple frozen or canned broth or soup like chicken rice and saltines.

If just too tired, can just sleep. No one will be hurt by missing a few days of meals. If super starving hunger pains — almost anything will do.

Quick, “lazy” low energy meals for me include: plain yogurt or w a fruit; frozen mixed veggies; soup; or a fast pasta dish is “poor man’s Alfredo” — cooked angel hair pasta, and any of these add-ins: bit of olive oil, or butter, bit of cottage cheese, milk or broth or water; dash parmesan cheese, whatever seasoning. A husband from northern Italy used to cook good meals, but had a penchant for graduate student quick comfort food. I acquired a taste for it too.

For the student quick “Alfredo”, pasta, egg, info cream, a bit of cottage cheese, Parmesan, a bit of sausage if avail (cooked frozen patty, chopped up), and, the ultimate, no kidding, a small can of those Le Sueur peas. Don’t over mix. Granted, an acquired taste.

If feeling really tired - just pasta, cottage cheese, bit of butter or EVOO and dash or Parmesan. If queasy, just Chix rice soup.

If you’re not queasy, just starving, I can recommend poor man’s sushi — King Oscar double layer sardines packed in olive oil on saltines.

When XH and I were in grad school and sometimes too tired to do much about food and too broke to go out or order in, we would fry up some ground beef and chopped onions, drain well. Season with salt and pepper. Add beaten eggs to the meat mixture, cook until the eggs are set.

If you want to plan ahead for those times when you won’t feel like doing much, brown the ground beef and onions. Drain and freeze. Then all you have to do it throw it in a skillet and add eggs.

This is a dish that is better than the sum of its parts.

ETA: I just googled to see if I could find this “recipe” anywhere, although XH totally made it up. Guess what? It is a middle eastern dish with a fancy name! BAYD BIL LAHMEH WA BUSSEL. Who knew!!

I generally don't like eggs unless their poached. A comfort food from childhood was poached eggs on buttered toast that was torn into pieces and served in a bowl. I always had milk tea with it. But we don't have any bread right now. Another comfort food for me was creamed tuna and peas on toast. I guess one of us will have to go out and buy some bread...

If I am really sick, I like buttered saltines with a hot cup of tea or Mrs. Grass's Noodle soup with extra noodles. If you have a sore throat, hot Jell O is pretty good.

Sue

Seagrass, You might consider picking up a bread machine (usually can find at thrift stores) just to keep you in bread during this pandemic. I had one in a box that I had never opened till the virus hit and staples became harder to find. Now we bake two loaves at a time and cut each in half and freeze. It's very easy once you've done it a time or two. Even my Dh, who is not a cook, can turn out a decent loaf of bread. Just a thought.

If you want bread and aren't up to making it, try pancakes or waffles. Go easy on the sugar if you don't want sweet.

I used to have those "cup of soup" around, the kind you get in the health food section. Not available in rural area where I live now. I keep some little pods of frozen home made soups for just these kinds of occasions. We do low salt now, so don't do canned soups anymore. Mom used to do the beef broth with V8 or tomato juice. Japanese people eat miso broth . . . If I don't have bread, then I am in real trouble . . . I keep a lot of bread in the freezer just in case. A "go to" for me would be peanut butter and jelly on a thawed frozen english muffin. I also eat cheese and crackers sometimes, we keep the packaged ones around, Lancer brand. Cheese crackers and peanut butter or cream cheese and chives on a cracker. My less salty would be muenster cheese, low salt triscuits and some unsalted almonds, and I suppose some warm applesauce with vanilla yogurt if i wanted to get real fancy . . .

Seagrass, I'd bake you some bread, but by the time I baked it, got it to the Post Office to mail and it got to you, you'll be recovered!

Funny how the food we want when we're sick involves crackers, toast, noodles, carbs of all types. My old doc used to say if you were sick you should follow the BRAT diet: Banana, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. I guess there is no scientific research behind it, but those are all things that my girls ate and they "settled" well.

Don't you have a decent bakery anywhere around where you could pick up some bread or rolls, maybe even croissants? That would be easier than navigating a grocery store and the sometimes endless checkout lines...

Annie