6 No-Prep Healthy Foods for Sickness (+ A Day’s Worth of 5-Min Prep Sick Day Foods)

Nourish your body quickly and easily and beat the cold & flu season with my 6 ideas of no-prep healthy foods for sickness. PLUS, I’ve written out an entire day’s worth of 5-min prep sick day foods for when you need more than just a little boost.

It’s officially cold & flu season, and while my husband and kids rarely get sick, we’ve already been hit, and I never really avoid it!

Part of having chronic fatigue syndrome is the very real struggle with semi-constant viruses that well and truly knock you out and leave you extremely drained. I’m used to fatigue and muscle ache, but my healthy diet and lifestyle usually allow me to reduce symptoms and keep going with my day-to-day life without too much trouble, but at this time of year… well, you all know that flu feeling. Urgh.

Sickness is hard on your body (I know this more than most) and it leaves you achey and exhausted, particularly when you have little kids following you around and lunches to make and school drop offs to do.

But just because the fatigue sets in and you need time to rest doesn’t mean you need to give up on eating well for a bit. In fact, it’s more important than ever to nourish your body (and your family’s bodies) through sickness.

Healthy food is thought of as high-prep food that takes ages to prepare. But this is simply not true.

Yes, you can spend all day in the kitchen cooking a meal from scratch, but you don’t have to!

Whether it is taking healthy shortcuts like pre-prepped veg or healthier prepared foods, or carefully selecting super-quick prep recipes, healthy foods for sickness don’t have to be complicated.

To help you through this cold and flu season while still allowing yourself time to rest, I’ve rounded up my 6 top healthy foods for sickness (+ a bonus day’s worth of 5-min-max prep time recipes) to show you that you can do this, and you can do it well.

And added bonus – these foods nourish your body so well, you may even heal faster and avoid the next bout of sickness as your immune system strengthens!

6 No-Prep Healthy Foods for Sickness

1. Pre-prepared probiotic-rich food: check the chilled aisle for live culture foods like full-fat plain yogurt, miso paste (stir into hot stock to make miso soup, my go-to sick day boost), raw sauerkraut or kimchi, proper yeast-free sourdough bread (ingredients should be just flour, water and salt), kefir or low sugar kombucha.
2. Teas: black tea is a great boost when sick and contains health-boosting tannins, and herbal teas are soothing for sick bodies (try chamomile, peppermint, fresh mint or fennel in particular).
3. Organic chicken, beef or veg stock: fresh bone broth is packed with vitamins, minerals and collagen – there’s a reason the expression is “chicken soup for the soul” – and veg stock (particularly mushroom) makes a good substitute for vegetarians. Avoid the cubes though, which are packed with salt, additives, preservatives and sugar.
4. Dark chocolate: yep. I’m talking really dark, 85% chocolate. The stuff that is full of minerals and flavonoids but very little sugar.
5. Avocados, nuts & seeds, cooked free-range/organic meats, tinned or cooked oily fish: your body needs some good fats when you are sick, to sustain energy, but also to help your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, C, E and K) from fruit & veg!
6. Ready-to-eat fruit and veg: this is number 1 really. When you are sick, reaching for plenty of whole, fresh fruit & veg is ideal. To save energy, buy pre-chopped, frozen or pre-cooked. Easy to snack on veg high in vitamin C include peppers (red peppers have more vitamin C than oranges!), sugar snap peas, fresh greens like spinach and kale, and tomatoes. Cooked orange veg is a great vitamin-A boost. Apples, citrus fruits (sip on hot water with a slice of lemon all day to soothe your tummy), bananas, tropical fruits and berries (fresh or frozen) are great boosts, too.

A day’s worth of 5-Min Prep Healthy Foods for Sickness

Breakfast: a green smoothie (juice-free with some fruit, yogurt, milk and plenty of fresh greens) and a bowl of porridge topped with fruit and nuts or nut butter OR a cup of tea or hot water with a slice of lemon with scrambled eggs and veg (mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes are great choices) on wholegrain toast.

Why? Plenty of fresh veg and fruit is amazing for you when you are sick, and a smoothie makes the vitamins more available, particularly in fresh greens. Oats are filling and soothing, but also contain “beta-glutens” which are believed to enhance the body’s immune response so are literally sickness-fighting. They are also high in magnesium, a key mineral for immune health (and a good night’s sleep!). Eggs are a powerhouse of nutrients, containing all of the nutrients needed to keep our body going in one delicious package!

Lunch: Chicken noodle soup – buy some cooked chicken (ideally organic or at least free range), chicken stock (ideally organic and fresh – no cubes!), noodles (any – rice, soba, wholewheat…) and fresh sliced veg or frozen quick-cook veg like carrots, peas, beansprouts, mushrooms, etc (or just grab a bag of stir-fry veg) and heat everything through in a saucepan for 5 mins until noodles are ready and everything is piping hot. Stir through a teaspoon of miso and top with some crumbled seaweed for an extra boost. Vegetarian? Swap the chicken for tempeh to add an extra fermented food boost, and use veg stock.

Why? Stock is rich in minerals and nutrients, packed with collagen and amino acids that actually boost immunity! Miso is a fermented food that is rich in probiotics, and its “umami” flavour makes it super easy and satisfying to eat. A little goes a long way.

Snack: fresh fruit and pre-chopped veg with 30-second homemade hummus – blitz a tin of drained chickpeas with raw garlic, ground cumin, coriander and turmeric, lemon juice or tahini and enough water or olive oil to make a smooth paste.

Why? On a sick day (or any day really), more fruit, and especially veg, is always a good thing! And eating them with a little fat helps your body to absorb some vitamins (fat-soluble ones like vitamin A, D, E and K) more easily. Plus – raw garlic is absolutely incredible at getting rid of colds and sickness, so put in as much as you can handle!

Dinner: my 15-minute sardine puttanesca (buy pre-chopped onion to make it even quicker!) OR my slow cooker veggie dahl, which takes 5 mins prep if you skip toasting the whole seeds and let it cook for you (skip the aubergines or get a pack of frozen roasted Med veg and add it for the last half hour (or just leave it cooking in the microwave or oven and drizzle with a little olive oil).

Why? Oily fish help get you out of that “brain fog” feeling sickness leaves, as well as helping to ease pains like joint pain. Plenty of veg is essential when sick. Not up to eating much? Try more soup or some egg-fried rice using a microwave rice pouch and a bag of mixed veg from the freezer for a lighter boost.

After Dinner: still hungry? a cup of herbal tea and a couple of squares of 85% dark chocolate or a piece of fresh/frozen fruit with or without full-fat yogurt are perfect.

Why? Herbal teas such as chamomile, peppermint or fennel are soothing and help your digestion and sleep. Really dark chocolate is low in sugar and contains flavonoids and minerals aplenty. Cocoa is thought to have immunoregulatory properties, meaning it could even boost your immune system! Plain full-fat yogurt with live cultures is soothing and easy to eat, but also rich in probiotics to boost your gut health and help you recover more quickly.

Get better soon!