What's your go to comfort food?

[GiddyRobin]

...when you're feeling under the weather? Mine are all childhood favourites and not particularly nice sounding, but I love them. 😂

Eggs in a cup with bread and butter.
Carrot and turnip mash with peas and onion gravy.
Mashed potatoes with fried eggs broken through.
Tea and toast (with the toast dipped in the tea).
Homemade vegetable soup, left brothy and chunky.
Tomato soup with cheese on toast.

I said to DH earlier that I think I'm coming down with something, and he asked if it was a carrot job or a soup job. 🤣 I also remember being given salad cream and plain salad sandwiches as a kid for lunch when I was ill. Sadly I tried that as an adult and didn't really enjoy it!

Homepride pasta bake. And I'll eat the entire thing gradually over the course of a few hours because I'm extremely greedy for homepride pasta bake.

Tuna macaroni.

Fish finger sandwiches
Good crumpets with butter
Tomato soup and cheese on toast
A M&S chicken and stuffing sandwich
Ginger cake with tinned thick custard

Cheese on toast

Depends on reason for under the weatherness 🤣

cold: strong flavours like chilli so a Chilli chicken or chilli miso broth with noodles and pak choi and lemon and honey tea.

self inflicted and sorrowfully hungover: straight to the Golden Arches for 2 cheeseburgers and a fat coke.

You dip toast in your tea? 😲
Do you drink the tea afterwards? 🥴

Two soft boiled eggs, with white toast buttered soldiers and a piping hot cup of sweet tea.

'Gypsy' toast- eggy bread basically, with brown sauce. Never sweet, savoury only.

Cheese on toast, again with a cup of tea. Toast crusts dipped in the tea 😳

so basically, tea and toast with eggs and or cheese.

@MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy I do! It goes all buttery! 😂 DH thinks it's disgusting and looks nauseous every time I make it, but it's just my favourite thing!

You've all inspired me. DH went out with the dogs and brought me back Heinz tomato soup. I'm having it with cheddar and red Leicester on toast! Also reminds me, when I was a kid, I used to add....

Sage and onion stuffing. I dare not ruin my sick food by attempting it tonight, but if I do try it I'll be sure to update you all. 😂

Some of these are so comforting! Love a fish finger butty! And the marmite love is very pleasing. 😁 How are we all for a cheese and onion crisp sandwich? Used to love that, pressed so thin the crisps crushed!

Also to the pp's who mentioned smoked haddock - yes! With aaaaalll of the spuds, had to be a carb overload. Also love a good homemade cheese and onion pasty smashed into thickly buttered bread, but the effort of making that is too much. DH is a good cook but he can't make them like I can. I know just the right cheese/onion/mash balance!

McDonald's chocolate milkshake always helps when I'm under the weather.

Melted cheese in a croissant alongside tomato soup.

Oh my goodness, this sounds delightful! I don't think I've ever had a croissant that isn't just cut open and stuffed with butter (I have a problem, I love butter), so this is going at the top of my list!

Chicken soup and matzo balls
macaroni cheese
scrambled egg on toast
mashed potato

Things I had as a child…potato cakes with butter, chicken or tomato soup, Vimto

Banana on toast. But toast and anything if poorly.

Jacket potato with loads of butter, given 5 mins in microwave first to speed up the oven time. Tuna if possessing the energy!

Chips and dips

Smoked salmon sandwich

Cheese, biscuits and a glass of wine.

Amazing how many people are saying heinz tomato soup!
I like mine with soft doughy bread and butter

Polenta (the soft kind served in a bowl) with butter, sour cream or ricotta, salt, shredded hard cheese (melted), pesto or tomato-based pasta sauce is amazingly comforting. Homemade polenta is an effort to make, but if you're just unsettled and not physically sick, the process can be comforting too.

Toasted cheese with tomato soup, as many PPs have said - but sometimes even creamy tomato soup feels a little too acidic, so "cream of" carrot, butternut squash, courgette, corn, or celery soup (or corn chowder) may work better depending on your tastes.

Cream cheese on toasted bread - with any kind of jam (or with mashed/sliced green olives, although these aren't as good if you're feeling nauseated).

If coldy - Chinese/Vietnamese hot & sour soup, or Thai thom kha (coconut based with a lot of galangal/ginger). Anything with Thai (holy) basil and/or lemongrass. Very head-clearing.

If nauseated - ginger ale or ginger tea.

If generally weak and need protein but don't want to eat anything - spoonfuls of plain hummus straight out of the container are easy and make me feel better.

@RachelNoire Scrambled eggs are lovely. I also quite like them just on bread in a sandwich!

@Earlynightthen Omg potato cakes. I haven't had them in ages; I'm a coeliac and never see them in GF bakeries. I'd forgotten about them completely but just googled a recipe and shouldn't be too much faff to make myself! Thank you for the reminder!

@Mydahliasareshit Love a smoked salmon sandwich. My favourite is with cream cheese and some rocket! It's that comfort but it's a slightly fancier comfort so it feels like you're spoiling yourself a bit!

@wildthingsinthenight Right?! It's interesting - I wonder if we were all given this as kids when we were poorly?! You can't beat nice doughy bread with it too. In fact, anything can be a good vessel! 😂 It's obviously magic.

@limegreenheart Thank you for this! Both the polenta and the soup - think I might have a go at making this actually! My favourite trick with butternut squash (or pumpkin) soup is to add sage. It works so well together. Funny that you mention the Thai herbs too, I was pondering some sort of prawn thing tomorrow if I can handle it.

I can't scroll back all through and find it, but I love the suggestions of the buttered rice a pp put too. That sounds very warming.

Also sometimes I just like freshly boiled new potatoes with loads of butter, some slices of mature cheddar, and a dollop of hummus. Really simple and just easy to eat. Nice if you cram a bit of cheese inside/under a spud and it melts a bit too.

I cannot wait to feel well enough to eat some of these suggestions! Currently sucking a fruit pastille which is surprisingly nostalgic

I hope you feel better soon! It's the absolute doldrums, isn't it? Bloody love a fruit pastille though. Also miss Chewitts, the blackcurrant ones!

I'm chuffed with all of the ideas on this thread! Can't believe how many things I'd forgotten either!

It is a great regret of mine that due to acid reflux I can no longer eat Heinz tomato soup. When we were kids we would get that with toast and butter if we were ill, and fizzy Lucozade. Fizzy drinks were a proper treat so you knew you were ill if the Lucozade came out. I had measles as a child and there was a lot of Lucozade.

I’m a lecturer and we tend to get a “class cold” about this time of year that goes round and takes everyone down. I remember a few years ago it was particularly bad, maybe the pre-Covid year, and people were REALLY sick with it. I had an email from a student one day saying she felt so bad with it she had eaten Heinz tomato soup for breakfast, cried for her mum (in another city) and couldn’t come in to our lecture. I felt that so deep in my soul.

Now I go for lentil soup out of a tin, and buttered toast.

How are you with red peppers? The closest I've made without tomatoes was a roasted red pepper and cream soup. I think I used balsamic vinegar too, and that was nice. Not quite the same but did the trick when I had abysmal pregnancy heartburn.

Oh that poor student! Being so poorly like that is so emotional; even now I get pangs of wanting a cuddle from my mum or dad! The first time alone in the big wide world though? Heartbreaking.

Love a good lentil soup too. I remember I'd see that in the tin as a kid and turn my nose up, but as soon as I could smell it on the stove-top...like a hungry pup. 😂 I've not had Lucozade in bloody ages now either. Wonder if it still has healing properties? We'd get either that or Ribena in a carton.

When I'm poorly chicken soup

When I want something comforting pretty much anything with mash potatoes

I don't even think lucozade is full sugar now

All I wanted at hospital was full sugar coke and I wasn't happy all the vending machines were diet because "health"

Oh no, that's no good. If you're going to drink coke then it needs to be the proper stuff. The diet coke tastes horrible, remember when cherry coke was popular? I got a diet one once and it tasted disgusting. Also can't do low fat hummus, it's so gritty! And it's bloody hummus...it's already healthy! 🤦‍♀️

@Enko I wish I ate meat sometimes because chicken soup always looks bloody lovely. My DB makes it and fries up bacon in there too, and the smell is gorgeous. Just don't think my stomach would handle it if I tried though, I've been pescetarian way too long.

Red peppers also not great although I love them. Sometimes you just have to take the hit, but not when you’re already sick.

I know, god love her. They were such a good class. I got taken down with the class cold the week before we broke up for Christmas. I always do a quiz of the year and Christmas jumpers/sweeties at the end of term, and I struggled in for that after having a few days off sick - the students love it and every single one of that class (final year students) turned up, we collectively coughed our way through it with no actual teaching or learning, then all went home! I absolutely love Cadbury’s Mini Eggs, and when they finished and were about to graduate they bought me - amongst other lovely gifts - a huge box of those, like one which gets delivered to the supermarket before they are put out on the shelves. I often feel like teaching is a thankless task, but knowing you are appreciated like that makes it worthwhile.