Quick, easy meals for when you're unwell and don't feel like cooking.

[BenWillbondsPants]

I'm on chemo at the moment and I know that I'll feel shit for the next week or so. I need ideas of really quick meals that won't make me feel like chucking up when I'm cooking. DH doesn't get home til late and I want to cook for me and the DCs earlier.

Oh girl, I can't believe you're expecting yourself to function and are calling yourself lazy!! Wtaf??

Go easy sweetie. In fact, go to bed. Fuck everyone else.

Ime people cooked me stuff and brought it over which was a huge help (and sorely needed). I couldn't take salt and pepper so they cooked without those. I live alone and was very poorly on chemo so those meals were an absolute godsend. If I cooked for myself it was cheese or beans on toast and soups. I'd like to say it was brown bread, more nutritious, but it was white cardboard bread bcs that was all my poor digestive system could cope with.

Pizzas for everyone else ad infinitum. And give yourself a break

@BenWillbondsPants

A good six months after treatment.
You'll have to try and find something you can taste!
Grapefruit keeps its flavour but I found lots of raw veg did too.

Cooking it seemed to kill flavour.

How are your teeth?
Can you do crunchy?
I loved this coleslaw.

Savoy cabbage, carrot, fennel, all shredded (I utilised child labour) then made a mayonnaise, lemon juice, poppy seed and nigella seed dressing.

So good and lots of flavour.

Good luck, stay strong x

Pasta bake (you can put dry pasta in the sauce in the oven)
Jacket potato
A cheats hunters chicken with a pre cooked chicken breast topped with bbq sauce and cheese
Toastie
Soup and sandwich
Slow cooker bolognese

Hope you feel better soon

I couldn't handle salt, pepper and spices too of course! Bland, easy, nursery food - what's the old fashioned word for people who are recovering from serious illness? Well, that food lol. Broths etc.

Take all the drugs they give you to protect your stomach. Godsend, essential xxx

Get dh to cook something when he gets back and heat it up the next day

I like a recipe from a celeb chef book (no idea who now) - dump some ham slices, cream cheese and spinach leaves into a dish, crack two eggs onto the top and cover with ready made puff pastry and bake for 25 mins. I add extra mozzarella and some red onion to mine.

Maybe try the Royal Marsden cookbook? DH’s aunt used it when she was under chemo there. It’s written by the hospital’s dietician and has recipes which suit each stage of cancer treatment, and therefore what suits your symptoms at the time (nausea, blisters etc).

Wishing you well x

Sorry you're going through this OP. I have ME which means I'm too ill to cook very often. DH works away a lot. When he does cook I ask him to make huge amounts so I can freeze extra portions.
Today I couldnt face food so I've just had snacks really.
B - scotch pancake and a banana
L - grapes and maltesers
&
D- croissant with cheese and ham, apple

Not the most nutritious day I admit. Other quick things are
Veggie Soup
Beans on toast
Scrambled eggs with cheese or ham
Ready made salad bowl with olives, sliced chicken
Bowl of porridge in the evening with added fruit
Frozen fruit is good, I love cherries with a bit of cream

Hope you feel better soon.

One massive tip though:

When a friend/neighbour/angel asks if there is anything they can do, tell them to bring you food.
Tell them to bring you what they want to eat when they are ill.

You'll be amazed and what people come up with and my kids loved it and so did I!

If you buy fresh fish off the fish counter in most of the supermarkets they put it in an oven proof bag with your choice of flavoured butter. Then all you have to do is chuck them in the oven and serve with a mouth of frozen microwave rice and veg.

Get dh to cook something when he gets back and heat it up the next day

Normally this would work, but he's working quite far away at the moment, he's not getting home til about 9.30 and will be for the next month or so. He's knackered and he wants to spend a bit of time with the DC when he gets home before they go to bed. I'm sure he would if I asked him but he'd literally have no time to himself then.

Oh you've all been so lovely, it's making me quite emotional, which is not like me at all! Thank you for the suggestions too, there are some great ideas here.

@LindaLa teeth are OK so far, I'm being so careful so hoping they stay that way. Had chemo yesterday and only one round to go now I'm kind of hanging at the moment. Will be glad when this part of the treatment is over with, for sure.

Use as many frozen, ready chopped or otherwise prepped veg as you need, your health is the most important thing at the moment.

More quick recipes.

Fish (I like smoked haddock) rice and a mix of 50/50 orange juice and water - stick in a pan and leave for 15mins. You can add frozen peas and sweetcorn or do some veg on the side.

Experiment with tins on toast, you can get meatballs, sausages etc with or without beans.

Tins/jars of sauce can be useful - jar of curry sauce plus a packet of mixed veg makes a vegi curry, substitute bread for the rice, either tortillas as chapati substitutes or french bread (I learned this in Mauritius).

Easy chicken and mushroom in a slow cooker, I have a small slow cooker but you can double up for larger quantities or cook in the oven/on a pan

Chicken - chopped
1 tin campbells condensed soup - mushroom flavour
Chopped mushrooms
seasoning of choice
optional - leeks, onions, peas

stick in the slow cooker, any ;left over can be made into a pot pie by adding a lid of (pre rolled) puff pastry.

How old are your children? Is it time they learned to cook? Even if it's one meal a week (apologies if they are toddlers).

Picnics of boiled egg, salad, ham, crusty bread, pickles - spread a cloth on the floor and picnic in front of the TV.

Ben I've seen you on another thread - sorry you are having a hard time with cooking and eating. Seconding what a pp said about asking friends to bring food, if that's a possibility. Traybakes - chicken pieces or sausages with potatoes and other veg - are fairly quick and simple. Roast Mediterranean veg with couscous and feta, you could buy the veg frozen. Those packets of grains that you just heat in a microwave, or in hot water, v nice with a lump of protein. Ready-roasted chicken from the supermarket, or does that count as takeaway? Sacla pasta sauces are tasty, I think, one jar would do 3 - 4 people.

Good luck with the rest of your chemo

Lots of good suggestions here.

Beans on toast, cheese on toast, hot dogs - whatever it takes to get you through this period of time. Be easy on yourself, I'm so sorry you're going through this. It's hard to cook when you are feeling nauseous.

However, if you're not feeling up to it, get a take away delivered, like a pizza for the kids, have some soup and toast if you're up to it.

Good luck op 💐💐💐💐💐💐