Getting the flu has really derailed the No More Costly Food (NoMoCoFo) blogging project I started this month, as I’ve had to rely on a lot of (expensive!) pre-packaged stuff for sustenance. Bless my sweetie’s heart—he tries, but he’s just not a very seasoned cook. Besides, he’s had his hands plenty full just making me dozens of cups of tea a day.

On that note, I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but seriously–the best thing you can do for yourself when sick is drink an insane amount of fluids. Tea, water, soymilk, juices, veggie broth…you name it, you drink it. I honestly believe I have skimmed at least a day off my illness just by staying laughably hydrated. (Laughably? Bathroom every half hour.) Mainly I’ve been drinking Traditional Medicinals and Celestial Seasonings bagged teas. When in good health, Nate and I drink loose-leaf tea (from Adagio.com) pretty much exclusively. But when you’re drinking as much tea as an illness requires, and you want the convenience of drinking different things without a lot of effort, bagged teas are worth the expense. (Thankfully, we had all but one of these already in stock.) My favorites have been:

From Traditional Medicinals:

• Organic Throat Coat: So deliciously licoricey in a way even licorice despisers can love.
• Herba Tussin
• Gypsy Cold Care
• Organic, Fair-Trade Sourced Nighty Night: Because when you’re sick, you sleep better with some herbal depressants on your side.

From Celestial Seasonings:

• Candy Cane Lane One of my favorite bagged teas ever, I stock up around the holidays so that I can enjoy it year-round. It was recently called “transcendent” by some first-timers.
• Chocolate Caramel Enchantment Chai
• County Peach Passion
• Honey Vanilla Chamomile Tastes remarkably like a Thai jasmine-infused tea I purchased once but was never able to find again. (Yaaaaaay, B&D!)
• Echinacea “Koala Bear” Complete Care Everybody loves this one; I’m sure the adorable koala bear on the front has something to do with it. Too bad Celestial Seasonings is changing the freaking cover art! *scowl*

Apart from the fact that the flu often acts as an appetite suppressant, it also often comes with a sore, scratchy throat that further discourages you from wanting to put anything down it. Yet the warmth or coolness of soft foods has helped my aching throat. I’ve tried to keep my diet pretty diverse to help the healing process, making sure not to drop the ball on protein, fiber, or B-vitamins in favor of just eating lots and lots of Vitamin C (a common route for sick people). Since Friday, I’ve been eating:

• chilled organic applesauce
• grits prepared with nutritional yeast (for B vitamins, yeah!)
• watermelon (more Vitamin C per serving than citrus, and non-acidic!)
• kiwifruits
• vegan pudding or Nasoya chocolate silken tofu (for protein and smiles)
• chocolate soymilk (again, protein & giggles)
• Annie Chun’s Udon Noodle bowl Fried tofu, green onions, bok choy and big ol soft udon noodles
• vegetable potstickers with tofu: In Atlanta, I’d totally go for Chef Liu’s on Buford Highway, but here I make due with the Ling-Ling brand found in the freezer case of the natural foods section at Kroger.
• Imagine Organic tetra-pak Soups: I’ve got the corn (not very nutritionally-dense, but tasty) and the sweet potato (TBD, but it has almost 200%-DV Vitamin A per serving!

So there you have it, some ideas as to how this vegan’s getting by with the flu. That said–sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.