8 of Our Favorite Sick Day Movies and What to Eat While Watching
This story is part of the Healthyish Guide to Feeling Better Already, a collection of recipes, remedies, and distractions to get you back on your feet.
Taking care of yourself when you’re sick usually involves a cozy blanket, plenty of hydration, and a few boxes of tissues. But there are two more important things you should make sure you have: nourishing food that isn’t all soup and an endless stream of movies to watch while you’re stuck on the couch. The road to recovery is paved with films that will make you laugh, cry, and get nostalgic for a time when you didn’t feel like you were dying. Here are eight of our favorites, plus the recipes we’re eating while watching.
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig1/8The Rom-Com Medicine: 13 Going on 30
Pasta salad was big in the ‘80s when Jenna (Jennifer Garner) magically went from 13 to 30 at her birthday party, and this healthy version will get you the vegetables you need while still comforting you with carbs.
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig2/8The Nostalgic Tearjerker: My Girl
Your mom might not be able to take care of you, but pairing nostalgic sloppy joes with My Girl 1 and 2 will keep you full through a few hours of resting up on the couch. Plus one twist: these ones are made with tofu!
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig3/8The Tap-Your-Socktoes Standby: Dirty Dancing
There’s nothing more comforting than a food you know will take care of you and a movie that you’ll watch literally whenever it’s on. Turmeric ginger-chicken soup is the food equivalent of Johnny: it’ll lift you up and get you out of the corner. The corner of sickness, that is.
Illustrations by Chelsie Craig4/8The One That Resembles How You Feel inside: Ghostbusters
When you feel like you’re living in a Mucinex commercial and you could swear that Slimer has become you, this super-green gazpacho is the only appropriate food to eat. Those garlic cloves are sure to bust whatever ghosts you’re fighting.
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig5/8The Laugh-Yourself-to-Health Pick: Superbad
While watching juvenile humor like Superbad, it’s only fitting to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This one has a twist with pecan-miso butter to represent how they (kind of) grow up by the end of the movie.
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig6/8The Soul-Warming Pick: The Big Sick
Let’s hope you aren’t as sick as Emily (Zoe Kazan) in The Big Sick. To start the healing process, eat one of writer and star Kumail Nanjiani’s favorite childhood dishes: warm chicken curry. This gingery version will help clear out your sinuses and warm you up.
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig7/8The One You Know All the Lines To: Bring It On
Now that it’s streaming on Netflix, you can watch Bring It On whenever you want—in sickness and in health. Also worth cheering about? Breakfast cookies!
Photo Illustrations by Chelsie Craig8/8The So-Wrong-It’s-Right: Cruel Intentions
You shouldn’t drink alcohol when you’re sick. That’s bad. But this gimlet has arugula in it! That’s the kind of thing that Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) would tell Annette (Reese Witherspoon) to lead her astray. Soon enough, you'll also be driving in a convertible, top down, leaving sickness in your rearview window.
