Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more on Fridays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

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During my first trimester, I spent a lot of time on the couch binge-watching television. For the first three decades of my life, I didn’t much TV, and especially not reality TV. I was a reader and proud of it, and reality television felt like the biggest waste of my time.

Last year, on the heels of Scandavol, my best friend had a Bravo-themed bachelorette party, and I felt so completely out of the loop on what the heck everyone was talking about. So I started watching a few episodes of Vanderpump Rules to educate myself. I’d put it on in the background while I cooked recipes and edited videos, and I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed entering the reality TV universe.

Fast forward to today, and now I’ve made my way through Summer House and Southern Charm (well, almost, I’m on Season 9). Grant and I love watching Love Is Blind together, and we dabbled in The Secret Lives of Mormon Lives as well.

After watching these shows, diving into the gossip, and having lots of fun conversations with my friends, my perspective on reality TV has completely changed. Although I still do believe it should be balanced with reading or listening to podcasts or whatever you want to do to help broaden your intellectual horizons, I now see value in watching reality shows.

For starters, if you’re interested in psychology and human relationships, it’s quite enjoyable to watch shows like this. Most of us enjoy being voyeurs, and I can admit I get great pleasure from watching different relationship dynamics play out on my screen. Of course, I take everything with a grain of salt, since we all know how much reality TV is manipulated, but my point still stands.

I also dealt with a great deal of distress over the last two years with our infertility challenges and IVF, and I was often not in the mood to work my brain with high-brow pieces of art or literature. I wanted to escape my mind and turn off my thoughts, and reality TV was a great way to do that. I loved the distraction of entering other people’s worlds.

But the thing that I find most beneficial is that now I can participate in conversations about pop culture. It’s nice to be able to enter a conversation and understand what people are discussing. I feel included in cultural phenomena, and it’s something I enjoy bonding with people over. I am not better than reality TV, and you can enjoy reading about philosophy and science and also simultaneously enjoy watching trashy television shows. They are not mutually exclusive.

All that to say, I have a whole lot of thoughts on the ethics of reality TV, at least in how they have been historically produced. But that is a conversation for another day…

My pants are getting TIGHT, so I’m starting to shift into clothing with elastic and ties. It’s been a bit of a struggle finding pants that aren’t overly casual, but I struck gold with these Striped Pull On Jeans from Gap Factory. I love the fit, they are extremely comfortable, and I like knowing they can grow with me. They’re also 100% cotton and on double sale right now!

I also bought this 100% Cotton Collared Blouse from American Eagle last week, and I’m in love! So gorgeous for spring/summer! I saw someone say that it looks like a piece from Doen, and I agree! Except this one’s only $30. I’m usually a small/medium, but I sized up to a large for this one, and it just gave it a little looseness. So light and airy and nice for warm days!

Do I need more hair products? No. Was I tempted by the Kerastase Nutritive 8H Magic Night Serum Hydrating Treatment that I’ve been seeing everywhere? Yes. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pull the trigger myself, as one of my best friends got it for me for my birthday. This serum is supposed to protect your hair from pillow friction while you sleep as well as nourish dry hair. Of course, I can’t speak to the long-term effects of it quite yet, but I love how it feels and smells (it’s very lightweight), and it’s awesome that you don’t have to rinse it out in the morning.

I love raw Brussels sprouts, and I much prefer them over cooked Brussels sprouts. They have to be shaved, of course, but I love the way they taste with a light and lemony dressing.

This Brussels sprouts salad has grapes, shallots, shaved almonds, white beans, and lots of grated Pecorino Romano. It’s loosely inspired by the Brussels sprouts salad at Scopa, which I’ve admittedly never had, but when a friend described it to me, I loved the idea of the flavors.

If you’re afraid of farting too much (a concern I’ve heard from a few), you can skip the beans and make this a side salad, or you can substitute some chicken if you want it to remain a full meal with some protein. Crispy chickpeas would also be delicious, but you might still be tootin’ (and that’s okay).

• 5 cups shaved Brussels sprouts

• 1 (15 oz) can white beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 1/2 cup halved purple grapes

• 1 medium shallot, thinly sliced

• 1/2 cup shaved almonds

• 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano (can sub Parmesan), plus more to top

1. Add Brussels sprouts, white beans, grapes, shallot slices, and almonds to a large bowl.

2. Prepare dressing by adding ingredients to a small bowl or jar and whisking together with a fork.

3. Pour the dressing over the salad, and then add the grated Pecorino. Toss together until everything is combined, and then serve topped with more Pecorino and some black pepper.

Last week, paid subscribers received a recipe for a chopped turkey melt — it’s like a tuna melt, but using turkey slices instead of canned tuna! I love the tanginess of the pickles and pepperoncini as well!

Just a reminder that anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive. You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!

And don’t forget: from now until Friday, February 28, I’m doing 20% off yearly subscriptions! That’s only $40 for the whole year! Discount auto applied when you subscribe!