What to Eat When you Don't Want to Eat

I seem to go through phases where at first I'm super excited to make meals and have a million ideas for interesting and delicious dinners that I can't wait to eat, and then something changes and for a while nothing seems to taste as good as it is supposed to and I'm just vaguely annoyed by an upset tummy that I eventually realize is due to the fact that I haven't really eaten "real food" in a pretty long time. I'm on the latter phase at the moment, obviously. Because of that, I have no pretty pictures of things I've made, but I can list some of the easy and satisfying dinners I can throw together even when I'm not in the mood to make.

• Meatball subs. If the meatballs are already made and cooked, it doesn't take much effort at all to microwave them with some sauce and put them in a bun with some parmesean. Filling and homey.
  
• Soup, any kind. Whether from a can or with random remainders of veggies and pasta and leftovers generally, there's really no way you can't make a soup to intrigue lazy taste buds. In the last week I've made some ravioli soup out of some chicken stock, a lonely carrot, some asparagus, some shriveling mushrooms and half an onion, a couple frozen meatballs and handful of frozen ravioli. Kind of like Italian Wedding Soup, I guess, but not really.
  
• Sandwiches. I don't really crave sandwiches all that much, but PB&J is pretty much always in stock.  Ham, turkey, and cheese can even be purchased at Walgreens, which are good both cold and grilled. My roommate suggests peanutbutter and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (the TASTE you can SEE) sandwiches too.
• "Nibbly dinners". Pretzels or bananas in Nutella, apples and graham crackers with peanutbutter, carrots or cellery in dressing or cream cheese are all vaguely healthy things to fill yourself with. Crackers, cheese, and peperoni with some nice firm grapes can be idly eaten without much prep either. A little bowl of riccota (or cottage cheese, if you're into that kind of thing) with some dried or canned fruit and nuts, maybe even with a little honey if you've got a sweet tooth is filling and fairly healthy.
• Pasta. Canned alfredo sauce and red sauce are just fine out of the jar. Throw in some veggies if you have them or a little chicken, sausage, shrimp, or what-have-you and there's a totally legitimate dinner. Macaroni and cheese counts in this same category, and Kraft totally counts. Ham and broccoli are really good in mac and cheese, as is a cut up hotdog. If you're feeling super lazy, follow Jess's example and throw some canned veggies in with Chef Boyardee.
  
• That said, hotdogs. Delicious and can be made in like five minutes. Likewise burgers if you have them already portioned out somewhere.
• Rice. One of the final things I resort to once I realize that the idea of flavors is really turning me off wanting to eat is regular old boiled white rice with butter and salt. Today I made some of this for lunch with a handful each of frozen peas and frozen corn and sauteed some bite-size shrimp in EVOO with a little garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper. I tossed that into the rice, flavored oil and all, once the shrimp were done cooking. It's not really a full meal seeing as it's like 80% rice, but it's got a little something going on in it anyway. My roommate does something similar, mixing up a big batch of curry with leftover veggies and things all blended together into mush which she eats over rice.
• Eggs. Scrambled, fried, in-a-basket, rolled into an omelet. They're fast, easy to make, and will keep you feeling good for a long while.
  

In addition to these more thoughtful "meal" ideas, leftovers are always an option if you have them. So are frozen entrees if you like them. Try to keep healthy and portable snacks convenient-- fruit both fresh and dried, nuts, crackers, pretzels, peanutbutter and/or nutella, baby carrots or snow peas, granola bars, trail mix, dry fortified cereal, cheese, yogurt, and so on. Sometimes having a little more variety than normal around is helpful. You might decide that, of all things, all you really want is a pile of steamed spinach and nothing else, or maybe a tall glass of milk and makeshift Bananas Foster, or maybe all you can stomach at the moment is a hot mug of tea and some shortbread cookies. Whatever, as long as you're trying to get things you need into you as much as possible and not wasting away, you should be fine until your appetite returns. Popcorn during a movie counts. So does a scoop of ice cream (some even have fruit and nuts in them! all your food groups in one!)

So basically that's been what I've been eating lately.