Moving to New York is one of the most exciting, compelling adventures I have taken in my short life. God has opened doors so big that I couldn’t have even dreamed them on my own.  However, as much as I now love the city’s buzz, soaring sky scrapers and contagious energy, it took me some time to get use to. You may remember in my first moments as a New Yorker I penned a candid reflection of my homesickness and elation at our new normal. At the time the main void in our NYC life was the lack of deep, meaningful, soul filling friends.  In the last few years that cavity has been filled to over flowing.

Today I was able to fill our Brooklyn apartment with thirteen women who enrich my life in so many ways. My core groups of ladies hail from either church or Crossfit.  Although we all share one common interest, we are still so diverse. We work in different industries from tech to publishing to higher ed to art, and have grown up in different corners of North America or abroad. We are in different places of life.  Some of us are newly married (Go M!), other are old marrieds, while most of us are single.  Very few of us studied the same majors in college. We speak a handful of different languages among us, and stem from different cultural backgrounds. However, it is this dissimilarity, this uniqueness, that keeps our conversations fascinating, and our time spent together up lifting. I am so thankful for the strong, brilliant, bad ass, New York women I get to do my every day life with here. I am in awe of every single one of them, and the dreams they are chasing. So it was such a joy to collide my two groups, and share a morning full of great eats with them.

You will find the entire brunch menu below.  Many of the dishes are paleo, vegan or gluten-free, with a few very needed exceptions.  To start you off you will see the recipe for the (very easy, very fast) delicious homemade granola we had. Over the next few weeks I will share recipes more from this meal.  Merry Christmas. I hope your holidays are filled with as much love and friendship as mine have been already.

Brunch Menu

• Homemade Vegan, Gluten Free Almond Granola
• Greek Yoghurt (dairy and almond)
• Overnight Gingerbread French Toast
• Vegan Hash browns (For this brunch I skipped the eggs and bacon and kept it vegan)
• Chicken Sausages
• Whole 30 approved, Paleo Vegetable Frittata
• Vegan Lemon Coconut Scones with jam
• Flourless, Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
• Rum and Eggnog (Almond and Dairy Eggnog)
• Slow Cooked Spiced Drinking Chocolate
• Mimosas

Homemade Vegan, Gluten Free Almond Granola

Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of quinoa
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup of sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup of almond meal
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (or any oil)
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (or any other nut butter)
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1/3 cup maple syrup, agave or honey (only do honey if you are not vegan)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, quinoa, shredded coconut, sesame seeds and almond meal.
3. In a small mixing bowl whisk together oil, peanut butter, water and syrup.  Add water if it is two thick.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until well coated.
5. Pour our the granola on to the cookie sheet and spread evenly.  Roast in the oven for 45-55 minutes (or until golden brown), stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from the oven, cool and serve!