On Sick Days

permission to slow down + a recipe for arroz caldo

All three kids are home from school today, sick. The sickness—a temperature, runny nose, cough—has been making its way through our family until it hit our youngest the hardest over the weekend. We stayed home from church on Sunday, and with middle-of-the-night wake-ups Sunday evening, my husband and I decided that it would be best to take another day and just rest. As I write this, two of my three boys are curled up in bed next to me, the littlest with his hot feet on my back and my middle with his stuffy-nosed snoring.

When I was working away from home, sick kids felt like a predicament. Whose turn was it to stay home? Who was I going to let down by not being in the office? Now, sick kids at home almost feels like a relief. Fewer drop offs and pick-ups, an easy reason to opt out of one of the many things that seem to pop up on our family calendar, an excuse to order in dinner.

Sick days remind us that we are, in fact, limited beings. Not invincible. Not energy bunnies, going and going and going. We need couch time and comfort food and unrestricted time to sleep. We need to be cared for, too.

In what is our family’s busiest season (all our birthdays! the holidays! the upcoming arrival of baby girl! closing out end-of-the-year business—all of it), mild sick days almost feel like a treat. An unexpected day to go with the flow. A permission slip to slow down.

After ordering both breakfast and lunch for pickup yesterday—and right in line with slowing down—a home-cooked meal for dinner felt in order. I decided on arroz caldo—the ultimate comfort food from my childhood, a chicken porridge with ginger and garlic that’s both soothing to sore throats and easy on the stomach.

I made a pot of it in my trusty blue Le Creuset. Here’s the recipe and the adjustments I made, if like me, you are in need of comfort food in this sick-prone season:

Chicken Arroz Caldo

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 2-in piece of ginger, peeled and minced

• 10? garlic cloves, minced (I don’t remember how many I actually used, but the photo shows my pile, which I divided—half to include in the arroz caldo, and half to fry for the topping)

• 1.5 lb chicken breasts, cut in pieces, sprinkled with salt and pepper

• 1 tsp fish sauce, optional

• 5 cups chicken broth + ½ cup water

• 1 cup rice

• toppings: green onion, lemon, fish sauce (I use Red Boat from TJ’s)

  

  

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook until onion is almost translucent (a few minutes) Add the chicken and cook until no pink remains visible (it will continue to cook along with the rice). Stir in fish sauce, rice, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cover, stirring occasionally. Add water, if additional liquid is needed. Keep cooking until it reaches a porridge consistency. Garnish with green onion, fried garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and fish sauce if you need more salt.