I agree about the soup. Another option would be French Onion. This recipe is so good, you don't need the cheese and bread on top. It freezes wonderfully. Deb at SmittenKitchen streamlines Julia Child's recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/04/french-onion-soup/

Rice freezes pretty well. Mashed potatoes do too. Not perfect, but good. Mac and Cheese. You may want to ask her what sounds good to her. When my stomach is sick, I crave bread and biscuits (I don't normally eat a lot of bread or greasy things), my brother wants spaghetti and pizza. Everyone is different.

Make big batches of smoothies, green smoothies with lots of greens like spinach and kale mixed with fruits like bananas and pears. Freeze in small batches and let thaw in the fridge. This will allow MAJOR nutrients without a lot of crazy ingredients to make them feel sick. Just blend with filtered water. You can also just make them fresh which is best, of course.

Otherwise, simple soups WITHOUT cream and dairy. Vegetable based with stock and limited seasoning.

Make vegetable purees without butter and cream. The dairy could make them sick. Freeze in small batches. Sweet potatoes are GREAT simple roasted whole, mashed up and made into a smoothie with a bit of chicken stock, greek yogurt and lemon pepper seasoning.

I would try to stay away from heavy dairy like mac & cheese and even rick things like french onion soup. The butter and dairy can really wreak havoc on your insides.

When you're suffering from nausea, food generally loses some appeal because when something keeps making you feel unwell, you stop craving it. So on top of needing mild things, your friend is probably mentally going to lose some appetite, too.

My best advice to counter that is to keep things very simple. After rounds of chemo, I didn't really want to eat "recipes" -- they overwhelmed me -- I just wanted food -- 2 or 3 ingredients tops. Avocado on toast, cheese on tortilla, chicken and noodles in broth (no veggies), oatmeal with brown sugar and butter, etc. It may be enough to bring a care basket of simple, mild ingredients: a nice loaf of white bread, a block of mild cheese, ginger tea, some homemade chicken stock, etc.

If you'd still prefer to actually cook something, the same advice applies: keep it simple and don't use strong flavors. Pureed veggie soups are great. If someone's appetite is bad, they're encouraged to make calories count, so including protein is helpful: something along the lines of this turkey potato soup would be great for that. If she's okay with lemon, avgolemono is another mild but protein-rich option.

Cold foods can also be better for someone who's nauseated because there isn't as much cooking aroma to potentially make them feel ill. You could prepare smoothie packets: freeze some chopped fruit and blops of yogurt or ice cream and store them in the same bag so she can just toss it all in a blender (there are commercial versions of this available from Yoplait and Jamba Juice, but I didn't care for them).

Patients who are dizzy and lethargic also have problems carrying heavy items. I always loved when my family helped me stock up on cases of seltzer water and ginger ale or gallons of milk.

Oh, I'm sorry KATHRYN1029, but onion soup is not a good idea. Heavy aromatics like onions and garlic have a strong potential to nauseate someone who's ill. Even something like ginger -- which settles your stomach -- can have too powerful of a smell if you're cooking near someone who's feeling queasy.

Since this site is pretty anonymous, it might help to know what illness your friend has. I've had friends be nauseated by chemo, by GERD, and by the ordinary flu, and all of their eating needs have been a bit different.

For example, when you have the flu, dairy might make you yak, but for someone who just had chemo, mac and cheese might be just the ticket -- for them it's more about mild flavors and smells than actually settling the stomach.

I have been nauseated for some part of every day for 3 years. When it's really bad I subsist on toast, Melba toast with cream cheese, little servings of ice cream, and more toast. I want bland, crisp, minimal. Warm or cold things are easier to eat than hot. Big hot chunky things (like scrambled eggs) are impossible for me to eat when I'm having difficulty. If you were bringing things to me, I'd want good breads, maybe some ice cream, nice tea. Nothing fragrant or chunky, very few veggies, few fruits. Don't worry about being too "nutritious" or healthy or virtuous. Mmmh, maybe a nice mild pumpkin soup? Chiffon cake?

I am sorry that your friend is suffering through difficult health. My prayers and best wishes for recovery. When my mother had cancer, I bought two books - Betty Crocker's Living With Cancer Cookbook and One Bite at a Time by Rebecca Katz. They were terrific resources at that time and I have continued to use the cookbooks after their immediate need was over. For example, the Betty Crocker cookbook colour-codes each recipe by which side-effect(s) it can help (or can at least be tolerated) - nausea, mouth sores, diarrhea, and constipation. They even have two-day eating plans by side-effect. Some of the foods listed on those eating plans that are good for someone suffering nausea are: fruit parfaits, chicken soup with noodles, oyster crackers, toast with a small amount of butter, skim milk, dijan chicken, mashed potatoes (not too rich, though), canned green beans, corn, or peas (because they are soft and easy to digest), sherbet or sorbet, sparkling water or soda, oatmeal with raisins, pretzels, apple-cranberry juice, macaroni pasta "soup", rice pudding, canned bland fruit (peaches, pears), roasted chicken without skin, baking powder biscuits, apple juice, orange frosty (frozen yogurt blended with orange juice), pot roast, and more.

The helpful hints to relieve nausea: use a kitchen fan or open windows when cooking; keep pans covered to reduce cooking odors; eat small,frequent meals slowly; serve food cold because it has less of an aroma; avoid spicy, greasy, or rich foods; choose dry, salty foods; choose sugar-sweetened beverages (over sugar-free drinks); drink chilled beverages (go down easier).

Sorry for the length of this posting but I hope that this information is helpful to your friend (or others out there who might read this).

Plain, lightly salted chicken broth with some neutral-tasting veggies is what I like when I'm sick or not feeling well. Or even just chicken broth with some good bread. It's nourishing and filling without being heavy or protein-void. Both homemade chicken broth and homemade bread freeze wonderfully.

If they can handle dairy milk-based soups are wonderful, especially if you use low-fat milk because they are so light but they give that comforting milky flavor. I love knoephla for this reason, but heavy dumplings is probably not something your friend wants to eat.

Sometimes when I'm nauseous savory things make it worse but light sweet things are okay. So something like homemade applesauce would freeze pretty well. I would say a very lightly sweet rice pudding made with milk instead of cream or eggs, but I'm not sure how well that would freeze. Jello would be great but I can't imagine what would happen if you froze it. Not good things, I suppose.

Also when I am sick I find good orange juice wonderfully comforting. Something about the rich sweetness and acidity of it.

Anyway - interesting thread. Let us know how things go with your friend. Hope things get better soon.

Not so much freezer fare, but there are a good number of instant things that can happen with just boiled water added: ramen, instant cream of wheat or rice, oatmeal, mashed potatoes. You can flavor these with a few spoonfuls of broth, keeping it all very bland. Don't forget the very old fashioned milk toast: toast very lightly buttered, a small amout of sugar and warm milk.

I do remember one evening when I had to go to a meeting and was forced to eat out before. I went to a Morrison's cafeteria and felt like I was feasting on mashed potatoes and some mac-n-cheese.

When I was in the worst of my chemo, absolutely no cooked food, mild or otherwise, cold or hot, was palatable. However, Ensure worked and I was able to avoid further nutritional intervention. As I read the comments ahead of me, I remember bananas were ok, and if I'd known about banana smoothies, they might have worked. But please ask your friend what flavors are tolerable, and go from there.

i had a friend recently laid flat by morning sickness - for her i made a lightly flavoured chicken noodle soup - with some ginger to calm the stomach and unsweetened apple sauce, which can be just nibbled at throughout the day...

In college I had a stomach infection which led to months of nausea as the inflammation subsided. The only consistent relief was ginger--I started slicing ginger roots directly into a mug of hot water.

Starchy, bready foods also sat easily. Maybe you could make your friend some homemade hot pockets with a simple filling (turkey and a mild cheese?). Lightly seasoned gnocchi or spaetzle, both without sauce, might fit the bill, too.

a good congee would probably freeze really well and is the penultimate food for easy digestion during illness. stay away from too many seasonings, just 1/4 cup white rice to something like 8 cups of water. simmer away until the rice has become a lovely creamy consistency (usually a couple of hours). is bland, but nourishing.

I just also got over morning sickness and was nauseous every minute of every day (granted for a happy reason). I agree with the woman who talked about just having food and no real recipes. Toast, grapes, crackers, congee, etc. A few tips that did help tremendously: don't consume liquids with food (too bloating) - so for me any broth soups were a no go; you can cut matchsticksbof ginger and put right on you gums (used for chemotherapy patients); and what was most effective was plugging into my iPod listening to guided meditation (simply being). Also eat lots of small meals every few hours. Best thing to do is keep the fridge stocked and be on call for grocery runs.