A is for...

Welcome to my newest culinary adventure.

As with the lentil adventure (http://thegreatlentiladventure.blogspot.com/), this one started with a conversation with a friend. My buddy Matt mentioned in passing one night that he had once partaken in an adventure of alphabetical proportion: eat and drink things that only began with one letter of the alphabet each day and progress through the letters for twenty-six consecutive days. When I mentioned that didn't seem too

ridiculous (relatively speaking) he mentioned that he felt himself going crazy by the end. So naturally I took up the challenge and for the better part of February we begin this adventure.

Some ground rules:

1) All food and drink consumed must begin with the letter for that day. This can be either whole ingredients (e.g. avocados, eggs, etc.) or traditional dishes that begin with that letter but feature ingredients that may not be in said letter-family (e.g. guacamole can count for 'G' although it contains avocados, peppers, etc.).

2) Brand names counting for a given letter are frowned upon although primarily can be used for beverages (e.g. Lone Star Beer [The National Beer of Texas] on 'L' day).

3) My two exceptions are water and coffee because I don't want to die of dehydration or fail as a grad student, respectively.

As these will be daily posts they may not be epic in length or contain lots of beautiful photos, but I will try to include them when possible.

On to 'A'!

As today is the 1st, I begin with 'A'. My trip to HEB yesterday yielded apples, almonds, dried apricots, arugula, avocados and asparagus. Here's what I've had today:

Breakfast: Two apples.

Lunch: Pack of almonds & a pack of dried apricots. Here's where it gets fun. Most of the time when you buy food at the grocery store it is designed for more than one meal (especially with things like nuts, etc.). But, since that letter quickly passes, if I don't finish a given ingredient I either need to keep it until the end of the month or find a way to use it in a future dish. Turns out I was on campus for most of the day and ended up finishing both packs, but I foresee this being a consistent challenge in the future.

Dinner: Steamed asparagus with an avocado & arugula salad.

End of day assessment: 'A' is an easy starting letter and there are plenty of things that I had to leave out (artichokes, anchovies, etc.). Future days will become more challenging. Additionally, since I can't eat one day's leftovers for the next (unless they can be conveniently transformed into another dish) all of my meals will need to be single serving. Planning will be key as the challenge unfolds.

As for tomorrow: I have blueberries, banana chips, bacon bits, broccoli and beets, which lends itself to a fairly good breakfast/lunch/dinner distribution. So far my biggest challenge is 'D'. I have dates and will probably grab a danish for breakfast but I haven't thought of what else to do. As will be the case for the entire challenge, recommendations are strongly encouraged.

I thank you all in advance for your ideas, so let the Alphabet Adventure Begin!