Mini Babybel Light Cheese

Even Miranda Priestly would approve.

There’s a scene in The Devil Wears Prada where an exasperated Emily Blunt explains to a wide-eyed Anne Hathaway how she maintains her slim figure: “See, I’m on this new diet,” she begins. “Well, I don’t eat anything. And right before I feel like I’m going to faint, I eat a cube of cheese.”  Emily…I feel you.

Anyone who knows anything knows that cheese should not be part of ANY diet. But despite of her affection for cubed cheese, no one can deny the fact that Emily Blunt’s character in The Devil Wears Prada is the Queen Bee of Skinny Workers, and over here at Skinny Office HQ her word is basically gospel.

This is how I found myself in the supermarket the other day, my basket filled with those iconic mesh bags of wax-wrapped cheese wheels: Mini Babybel Light. Buying or consuming cheese goes against just about everything I believe in, but the bag of cheese was already in my basket and the only option was to ask myself: What Would Emily Do? She would check the nutrition info, let out a sigh of relief (only 50 calories and 3g of fat per piece!) and follow through with her purchase. I did the same.

Oh Emily, you are so wise.

Mini Babybel Light is not cheese in the way that brie or gouda or queso (an exotic dairy delight I got to know all too well over a weekend trip to Texas) are cheeses. Mini Babybel is a bit more tart and a bit less creamy than typical cheese, but it is no less delicious. The Babybel website says that the cheese is “great by itself, but can also be paired with fruits, veggies or crackers if you please.” Sounds good, but let’s stick with just the cheese–Emily didn’t mention anything about fruit and she certainly didn’t mention anything about crackers.

I’m still hesitant to allow myself any cheese-products after I gorged on fried catfish drenched in queso during that fateful trip to Texas (I know, I hate me too,) but Mini Babybel is inoffensive enough for me to overlook my aversion to coagulated milk  and indulge.

If it’s good enough for Emily it’s good enough for me.