Gluten what? Celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham are helping raise awareness about living a  gluten-free lifestyle. A quick lesson about gluten: gluten-free foods do not automatically make them good for you (darn!). It simply means that they don’t contain wheat, rye, barley, any gluten-containing cousins of wheat, and are processed in a gluten-free facility.

It has become easier to identify gluten-free products with food labeling laws that require companies to indicate if the food product contains wheat (the primary source of gluten in the diet) and/or if it was processed in a facility that also processes wheat.

Did Kavita’s post about how to lose weight by accident not convince you to hop on board? Well Healing Lifestyles and Spas have found 5 delicious snacks:

Mary’s Gone Crackers
Mary, a real person and the founder of the company has Celiac Disease and  had trouble finding delicious gluten-free foods. Her solution? Make them herself!

Udi’s
With gluten-free eliminating wheat, you may think that there could be no such thing as great tasting gluten-free bread. Well Udi’s delivers delicious bagels, buns, breads, and muffins. Now you don’t have to go bunless at your next BBQ!

Erewhon GF Breakfast Cereals
They have all kinds of cereal your little heart could desire. Ranging from adult, grown- up cereals such as Crispy Brown Rice or ones that make you relive your childhood such as Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice or Strawberry Crisps. You are sure to find a delicious option for your morning.

NoGii – No Gluten High Protein Bar
Elizabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View and author of The G-Free Diet, has used her celebrity to shine the spotlight on others like her who live with (or whose kids live with) Celiac Disease. They use the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter to create a gluten-free energy bar that is high in protein. There is also a kids bar!

KIND Healthy Snacks
You can find these delicious snacks at your local Starbucks during your morning coffee run. All KIND bars are simply made with nuts and fruit. You can’t go wrong with that!

Good nutrition and great taste can finally go hand in hand!

I have a date tonight.

Back in November I was invited out to dinner by a man by the name of Hagan Blount. For a last-minute girl in a city of last-minute men where dates tend come into existence the week-of, if not the hour-of (one of the great thrills of living in New York!)—this was certainly no ordinary invitation.

Hagan Blount is The Wandering Foodie, and after his last stunt (24 meals in 24 hours), Hagan has asked over 50 NYC food bloggers, myself included, to join him for a meal along the way on his latest epicurean adventure, 93 Plates.

For the entire month of January, Hagan is eating every single meal—breakfast, lunch and dinner—at one of New York City’s best restaurants, documenting every last bite. Thirty-one days, three meals a day = 93 Plates.

Why? The Wandering Foodie says: Why not?

Read more at WanderingFoodie.com and check back here to read the juicy details of our meal tomorrow. Oh… where are we eating? That’s a very good question. The destination has changed 3 times within 3 food genres and 2 boroughs in the past 48 hours… and at 2:30 PM, with bated breath I wait. Even for a non-date with an organized, super-charged foodie on the loose, nothing’s different—it’s still New York!

Follow us on Twitter for the live table talk: @H18 and @michellejoni

AFTER THE DATE UPDATE:

Just after posting this, Hagan informed me that our dinner was at a little Italian place in Queens called Vesta. Last time I had been to Queens for dinner was never. I was excited to try out a new borough, and my expectations were wildly surpassed.

A note on Hagan: “Wandering Foodie” is a 100% accurate representation of his current existence. With a laptop on his shoulder and only the clothes on his back (well, and the ones in his sublet), Hagan wanders from restaurant to Starbucks, blogging and eating and blogging and eating without much else in between.

It was fun to take on the role of a true food blogger for the night, photographing each dish in the best lit spot of the restaurant, jotting down notes on each bite, ingredient, flavor, spice, texture and opinion. Enjoy eating vicariously through our meal, and I’ll link you when Hagan posts his detailed review.

Appetizers:

Fried Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan, one of the dishes they are rightfully known for. If you love roasted brussel sprouts... it's because you've never tried them fried.

Bibb Salad: Some of the freshest, buttery smooth lettuce I've ever had, topped with fried leeks, bacon with a farm egg; yolk drizzled on top with a light dressing.

The Meatballs: The breadcrumbs and Parmesan stole the spotlight - the ball is in their court completely.

Main Course:

Porkbelly with Sweet Potatoes, Pearl Onions and Prune Sauce blended beautifully. Porkbelly was too fatty for me to enjoy, as porkbelly tends to go for me. But was a well prepared dish for fat-lovers.

Cheesy Campinelle: Beats any macaroni and cheese. Again, breadcrumbs stole the show, creating flavor-filled fireworks in my mouth with every bite.

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Escarole: Too oily and not enough flavor compared to the other competitors on the table.

Dessert:

Pound Cake with Apricot Sauce: Better without the sauce. A decent cake, nothing to write home about.

Baby Jesus Cake: Hagan loved it. I thought it was just okay. Hagan also thought there was gingerbread in it. I assured him there was not. I was right.

Check out The Foodie‘s version of our meal at Vesta.