Earlier this week, Kate Moss told Women’s Wear Daily one of her mottos: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Clearly by “skinny,” she means “Domino’s Bread Bowl Pasta,” right? Right.

Though the Kate Moss diet may consist of cucumber vapor with a side of nothing, on the other end of the spectrum we’ve got an entire television network dedicated to staring at food you can’t taste. When it comes to eating, it feels like we’re surrounded by funhouse mirrors: For every skeletal model, there’s a grotesquely tempting food construction on ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com. And despite their opposing objectives, we celebrate Nathan’s hot dog eating contest and “The Biggest Loser” with equal enthusiasm.

Nevertheless, this is the time of year where you have to block out such conflicting, often paradoxical images and just eat what you love. Thanksgiving is upon us and daylight hours come and go so quickly you could nap right through them and really confuse yourself. As it gets colder and darker outside, we’re destined to remember what a Food Hug feels like, to cushion the onset of the winter blahs with mashed potatoes and other easy gustatory sensations Kate Moss has probably never experienced.

Soup feels like the first and most obvious answer, and fortunately there are two pretty wonderful deals mere blocks from campus. Sashimi Sashimi’s miso soup is a dollar a bowl, a clarion call to those of us with handfuls of change weighing down our pockets. Around the corner, $1.85 buys you a cup of Pomegranate’s yellow lentil soup replete with a wedge of lemon. Staying on that cheap and sodium-riddled note, a whole dill pickle at Al’s Deli will set you back about a dollar and is oddly comforting – I’m not pregnant, just trust me on this one.

Those with a sweet tooth should take note of the selection of Haribo gummy candies at World Market and prepare to weep tears of joy (I’m still not pregnant). Mini Rainbow Frogs, Happy Cola and red berries studded with little candy beads make it a necessary pit stop on the way to Century Theaters next door. Nothing beats smuggling a few bags of gummy contraband into a movie with the assistance of your gigantic winter coat.If you’re too warm and cozy at home to go anywhere, I suggest pretending as though you’re babysitting yourself: Revert to kid food. Last winter I learned of a culinary creation called squidghetti, which is prepared by threading uncooked spaghetti through pieces of cut-up hot dog. Boiling the combination as you would pasta yields Seussical, squid-like results, ready to be dipped or dressed in just about any condiment imaginable. Like Haribo gummies, squidghetti begs to be consumed in front of a movie (preferably one that is of equal nutritional value such as R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet saga or Airwolf).

So what if your favorite comfort foods err on the side of childish? Even the late novelist John Updike once spoke of his routine of eating a cracker smothered in peanut butter before leaving the house, proof that finding success and eating like a first grader are not mutually exclusive. And luckily, it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.