Post-Kid(s) Kitchen: Eating for Nausea

Food and I broke up this week. Between my kidney-bean-sized passenger and a cold that Westley was nice enough to share with me, I've been balancing nausea, loss of appetite, and post-nasal drip that makes everything taste "off." The thought of eating makes me feel like a contestant on Fear Factor. And cooking? Pretty much out of the question.

My wonderful doctor (who is also a licensed midwife, and was the student midwife who saved my life present at Westley's birth) said, "The first three months are just about surviving." But I feel like I should at least make an effort to consume more than pickles and lemonade, the only two foods that sound good - if anything could be said to "sound good" right now.

So far, I haven't come up with very much. Pasta puttanesca has been going down pretty easily, but I don't feel like I can eat it for breakfast. Enter blended fruit.

Take Your Iron Supplement with This Smoothie

Makes a lot, probably 2 or 3 servings, but I just drink the whole thing myself

1 cup pineapple juice

3 Clementines, peeled and broken into sections

1/2 cup unsweetened frozen raspberries

4 strawberries (fresh or frozen)

Combine everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately. That's it! Lots of fiber and 296% of your RDA for vitamin C.

Unless you count boiling gluten-free pasta, practically the only thing I've been able to cook this week has been a super-simple soup, based very loosely on Chinese Corn Soup. I say "very loosely" because it's not much more than corn and vegetable broth - but it's been the perfect thing for my cold symptoms.

Almost Instant Corn Soup

Serves 2 - or 1 sick person who doesn't feel like eating much else

1 1/2 cups super-flavorful vegetable broth (I use a powdered broth concentrate, and just make the broth a little stronger than usual)

1 1/2 cups corn kernals

1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp water

Combine vegetable broth and corn in a pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water until well-combined. Add the cornstarch-water mixture to the boiling soup and stir. Continue to stir for about 2 minutes, until the soup has thickened slightly. Serve immediately, garnished with baby corn (pickled or not) and chopped scallions.

I'm hoping that as my cold disappears, I'll start to feel less like cooking and eating are things I have to force myself to do before I lose the nerve to do them. I was feeling really tired (unbelievably tired) but otherwise awesome before the cold reared its ugly, mucousy head. In the meantime, I'll be racking my brain for things to eat when I don't feel like eating.

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