Question: bland foods for a tender gut

[sonia]

I'm recovering from food poisoning (ugh!) and my gut is really tender, so I need bland foods for a while. When I was a kid, the thing to eat was saltine crackers. Or toast. Or noodles. Why do all these recovery foods have gluten??

I've been eating bananas, plain rice pasta, and chicken broth (Pacific Foods, labeled gluten-free, although it has onion powder, sigh). I need more ideas, please? What do you eat when you're being kind to a tender gut?

ETA: Wow, thanks for all your good wishes and suggestions!

Recipes in comments:

• basic coconut custard by heron61
  
• "dirty" eggs by harmonic_tabby
  
• 'magic soup' by gumbie_cat
  
• microwave rice pudding by rosefox
  
• microwave bread pudding linked by rosefox
  

Comments

[rosefox]

Miso soup, perhaps with cubes of tofu for very very bland protein. It's really easy to make, and the salt and liquid are good when your electrolytes are depleted, same as chicken soup.

I make rice pudding in the microwave with cooked rice (Chinese takeout rice works fine), an egg, a bit of sugar and vanilla, and some non-dairy milk. It's extremely filling, so I'll keep it in the fridge and have a spoonful or two at a time. If you don't have rice, try bread pudding with any GF bread you have lying around; for sick-person bread pudding rather than dessert bread pudding, I'd halve the sugar and omit any garnish. Sweets are not good for an upset tummy.

Cooking your pasta in broth (vegetable or chicken) will help get more calories and nutrients into you, with no additional effort.

When I had wretched dreadful food poisoning, I lived on smoothies made with soy milk, bananas, and a bit of peanut butter. You can add ice or freeze the bananas if you want, but it's not necessary.

[sonia]

Thanks! The rice pudding sounds like a great treat.

[rosefox]

You're so welcome!

[cn: a medication suggestion follows; feel free to skip/ignore]

If you're at the stage of post–food poisoning hunger where anything in your stomach starts a flood of acid going, and you don't have those easy gluten carbs to sop it up, over-the-counter antacids may help break that cycle and get you to the point where you can eat regularly again. I mention this only because it was vital to my own food poisoning recovery!

[sonia]

Thanks for the tip! That might explain some of what's been happening. (And sorry to hear about the wretched dreadful food poisoning!)

[rosefox]

I'm so glad to be able to help a fellow sufferer. May your recovery be swift.

[sonia]

Thank you!