LAZY Jane's Buffalo-Style Stuffed Celery

Ok. so my Buffalo-Style Stuffed Celery is not pretty. I’m also not a fan of celery (and not JUST because of the strings, like in All American Slurp). Oh, and maybe I should mention this isn't even the original recipe. Sigh.

In attempt to make better eating choices that would give me energy and help me achieve the ultimate goal of losing 100 pounds, I went through ALL my diet materials, visiting many ghosts of diets past. I fumbled through: Shape Magazine workouts and eating programs. Vegetarian cook books. A book about MUFAS and healthy fat. The Coconut Oil diet. Eating Fresh. Firm up in a month. Walk your way thin. And when Black Swan was hot, two or three work your way sexy, ballerina workouts. Among the rubble I also found some long forgotten Weight Watchers materials. Clutching my weight tracker from April 2012, I slipped back in time in that weird way I now keep track of it; times and events when my brother Scott was alive and time and events that occurred after he died. When I weighed in at weekly meetings and tracked my points, my brother was doing well recovering from his pancreas and double kidney transplant. He and his wife still lived nearby and hadn't moved six hours away. There is a deep sadness in tracking time this way and looking into the past, I reconnect to a version of myself that didn't even realize how good things were. This version of myself was lost and thought she was fatter than she truly was. I would LOVE to be the weight scrawled on those old booklets. This version of me was lazy and figured out how to cheat the Weight Watchers PointsPlus system. As I looked through the materials from what feels like a different lifetime ago, and sat with those big emotions, I also collected some tips and recipes.

Last night, I recommitted to the goal of taking off the cushingoid weight that had packed on faster than normal with high doses of prednisone for about 3 years. And to address the elephant in the room, I do realize that unhealthy eating habits and lack of mobility played their parts in this as well. So, I actually dragged myself out of bed early on a Sunday and went for a 30 minute walk. As I walked, I brainstormed some beautifully morbid and dark poetry and short story ideas. I was pleasantly surprised that my back wasn't spasming and my feet, knees and legs burning with pain by the time I got home. I took some time and made a list of items for the week's menu and went grocery shopping. By the time the groceries were put away, it was time to get ready to meet friends for breakfast and venture off to watch Bohemian Rhapsody.

While humming "Don't Stop Me Now" in a weird, melancholy haze, pondering Freddie Mercury's tragic death, I created my own version/interpretation of a Buffalo-Style Stuffed Celery recipe I last night's bounty. This snack was delightful that I thought I would share the original recipe as well as my own version of it.

So, here it goes...

Weight Watcher's official Buffalo-Style Stuffed Celery ( from PointsPlus 2012 Ultimate 3 Month Tracker)

Ingredients:

1/2 c low fat cream cheese, softened

2 TBSP blue cheese softened

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp table salt

5 servings celery, five large ribs cut into 4 pieces each

2 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce or to taste

1 TBSP fresh chives chopped, optional

Instructions:

In a small bowl, stir together cream cheese, blue cheese, garlic and salt until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 TBSP cheese mixture into each piece of celery.

To serve, arrange stuffed celery on a plat, drizzle each with 1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (or keep for the side). Sprinkle with chives if desired.

Yields 2 pieces stuffed celery per serving PointsPlus value of 1

LAZY Jane's Buffalo-Style Stuffed Celery

Ingredients:

Philadelphia's Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese 7.5 oz

Sweet Baby Ray's Creamy Buffalo Wing Dipping Sauce

Celery ribs cut into 5 pieces

Instructions:

In a small container, mix the entire contents of Philadelphia Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese and 2 or 3 shakes of Sweet Baby Ray's Creamy Buffalo Wing Sauce. Stir together.

Scoop 1 TBSP of Buffalo/Garlic and Herb cream cheese mixture and spread inside 5 pieces of celery.

Yields 5 pieces of stuffed celery for PointsPlus value of 1

Bon Appetit! ;]