foiled again

This year I am in charge of organizing the department's weekly Coffee Hour. This basically means I make sure someone else buys some bagels and I set up the coffee and tea. I used to dread the Coffee Hours because I would spend an hour surrounded by my mortal enemy: breakfast pastries. I heart pastries. I could polish off an entire tray of croissants if no one was looking. Coffee cake? Yes, please. Bagels? Keep 'em coming. And don't even get me started on cinnamon rolls, buns, or sticks.

So every week I would try to mentally prepare myself. I would eat a balanced breakfast thinking that if I were full of oatmeal the first, second, or second-and-a-half muffin would no longer look appealing. Or I would cut the pastries into tiny pieces and really try to focus on each morsel. And, my personal favorite, I would avoid Coffee Hour altogether and then secretly eat all the pastry leftovers in the kitchen throughout the morning. Yes, Coffee Hour was my secret shame.

But then I went vegan. And Coffee Hour was no longer a problem. I had a couple glorious months where I only ate the rare fruit people brought in and sipped my tea and felt incredibly superior to everyone else. But then I made the mistake of telling people I was vegan. The next week someone brought in vegan muffins and soy milk. And then there were bagels. And, finally, my crushing defeat, one of our visiting faculty members, who is the epitome of a fuddy old oxbridge greek scholar, brought in two (TWO) containers of vegan oatmeal raisin cookies. And none of these are any healthier than the real stuff. I mean, it might have a bit less fat but that deficit is totally made up for with sugar. Lots of sugar.

Stupid health-conscious, dairy-allergic bay area and its wide selection of vegan alternative baked goods.