What I cooked when I had covid
As you know, cooking is a huge part of my life. I spend a lot of time researching recipes, shopping for and creating recipes. I know not everyone enjoys being in the kitchen, but I really love it and I’ve made it a large part of my life’s work.
So when covid hit this spring, zapping my taste and smell for weeks, cooking (and eating) became a means to an end and nothing else. I had zero desire to eat, but I needed to get in some nourishment in order to keep up my strength and hopefully heal. I also needed to feed my family.
Cooking during this time was a real struggle for me because 1. there was no joy in it, 2. I couldn’t taste anything so had no confidence I was feeding my family something tasty and 3. I was seriously lacking motivation and energy.
If you can relate to any of these things, then I hope this post will be helpful. Please don’t expect anything amazing here, but I’m going to share what I was able to get on the table for my family without a lot of effort, that they told me tasted good and that provided some nutrition (some meals more nutritious than others).
Even though I couldn’t taste or smell any flavors, I could “sense” salty, sweet, spicy, bitter and sour. This in and of itself was very, very odd. I could imagine what the foods tasted like and could fit them into those basic categories, but that was it.
Here’s what I fed my family while I suffered from covid:
Sticky Pork Stir-fry – this meal is super, duper easy. I dump a bag of frozen stir fry veggies in a skillet with a pound of ground pork (use whatever meat you have), mix up the sauce and throw that in once the meat and veggies are browned. Serve over rice.
Gluten Free Hamburger Helper – Last time I was at Aldi, they had these two gluten free dinner kits. I picked up one of each and stashed them in my cupboard for just this sort of emergency. We had the cheeseburger one and it was good (I think). I had one little squash from my garden and some fresh spinach so I added those in making it a complete meal.
Tuna Salad – Canned tuna, mayo and pickle relish all mixed up and served with carrot and celery sticks. We also had some avocado oil potato chips on the side and popsicles for dessert. Yessiree bob, it’s getting fancy over here!
Buffalo Chicken Wraps – I grilled chicken breasts and then shredded the meat and tossed it in a combination of melted butter and Frank’s Red Hot sauce. I served the chicken on Siete Foods Almond Flour wraps with spinach and a little blue cheese dressing. This is absolutely nothing I would have normally made, but I was craving the salty/spicy of hot wing sauce in lieu of actually tasting any sort of flavor. I served this with watermelon and canned green beans.
Scrambled eggs, bacon and orange slices (real orange slices, not the candy kind – thought I better specify).
Frozen gluten free pizza (Costco is our favorite brand but there are lots of options at the grocery store now). Served with fruit smoothies. I buy those smoothie packets from Costco that contain spinach, kale, berries and banana in 100 calorie packs. I blend one pack with a little orange juice and enough water to get the consistency we like. My family of four usually splits one packet, sometimes two if we’re really hungry or I feel we’re fruit and veggie deprived.
Super simple tacos – I brown ground beef and use salsa for the seasoning. Simmer until ready to eat. Serve with all your favorite taco toppings. Sometimes we serve with rice, sometimes lettuce, sometimes chips – it’s really just a matter of what I have on hand.
Whole Chicken in the instant pot (see my video for this recipe here). This was super easy and super nutritious. I added extra celery, carrots and onions. We had leftovers for days. Plus I cooked the bones afterward for some good, hearty broth to stash in the freezer.
Keeping a well-stocked pantry and freezer is really the key to surviving this sort of thing without succumbing to ordering takeout or getting lots of fast food. When you’re sick, you really need nutritious foods as much as possible. As you can see from this list, some of these meals were more nutritious than others, but I always tried to add in some fruits and/or veggies.
In addition to having a lot of shelf-stable and frozen things available to work with, I had family and friends bringing me groceries, which was a huge help.
I feel like I have to say one other thing here….a lot of us in this space are following a very specific way of eating. We are paleo, or AIP or we intermittent fast or a combination of those things. When you’re sick, you need nutrition. I’m not saying to start eating gluten, because I do think that would be problematic, but it is time to loosen up a bit if you feel it’s what your body needs. For me personally, I love intermittent fasting and usually don’t eat until 4-5 PM each day. During covid, I was taking so many meds and supplements that required a full stomach that I just had to eat. I was eating all day long. I didn’t like it and it wasn’t my preference and frankly, I’m really looking forward to getting back to fasting, but for now, I’m trying to embrace what my body needs in order to recover. My goal is to not deal with long-covid and so I’m ordering my day with that goal in mind.
If you have not yet had covid, I certainly hope you manage to escape its clutches, but if you do happen to get sick, I hope some of these meal ideas will be helpful to you. If you have any great meal ideas or tips that helped you survive covid, please share those in the comments below. As always, I wish you well!