When Your Bananas Go Bad...

Make banana bread!!

I've been waiting for our bunch of bananas to be ripe enough to make banana bread and yesterday was finally the day. I don't have a special banana bread recipe. In fact, I usually just search the internet until I find one that seems good.

This time I wanted to spice up my bread so I checked Pinterest and found a recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread!! I already had the whole wheat flour and cocoa powder and just needed the almond meal. Apparently almond meal is just ground up almonds that can be used in breads and cakes as part of a low carb diet. With these ingredients, the recipe is relatively healthy!

The bread turned out great but is quite chocolaty so I don't think I'll make this version every time.

By the way, I got my almond meal at Trader Joe's and while I was there, discovered my new favorite snack: Speculoos Cookie Butter and Coconut Cookie Thins. Seriously this is a must try!! Probably not as healthy as my banana bread but so addicting. Enjoy!!

Flashback Friday - March (Part 2)

2009

March 2009 was full of fun.

Mama B the birthday girl!!! And her beautiful Tiffany necklace from Dad! 

Cute Little Benjamin.

The other Birthday Girl Brittany playin ball.

Candles! I love Camille's Baylor shirt.

Sweetie Pie Molly. (I think I have one of Lexi almost exactly like this!)

Molly and Bamie at softball.

Camille and I at the Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Experience. I still love the Jo Bros, by the way. Kevin has an awesome reality show with his wife: Married to Jonas!

We went to SDSU to watch Brandon Relf play baseball for BYU. Had to stop by the softball field while we were there. Remember when Uncle Brian got yelled at by Fresno State's Margie Wright while eating a hot dog at one of my games?!? 

To celebrate my 25th birthday, our group of friends decided to go to Vegas. It was one of my favorite trips. We got a 2 room suite at a Hilton vacations club off the strip and it worked out perfectly. We were all able to stay in one place and would take cheap limousine rides to our destination each night.

Lunch at the Bellagio

Samantha and I matching on night 1!

Goofy Girls. Tara, Britt, Case, Tiff, Samantha, Lauren.

A totally unplanned, uncoordinated funny pic. Now that's impressive!!

The whole gang.

 Lauren and I were matching too!

Jet Nightclub. From left, Britt, Lauren Harper, Tara, Casie, Samantha, Lauren Smith, Ashley, Margo.

Limo ride!!

Happy to have my Fat Tuesday. Look at that hat...hahah!

2010

This was the first year that John was around. We went to Tempe, Arizona for Spring Training and my birthday celebration. And made this same trip for the next two years. Sadly, this year was the first time we did not go. It just wasn't in the cards with a new puppy at home.

St. Patty's Day at The Press in Claremont. This is when I was working tons of hours so I look tired but was happy to be out of the office.

Family birthday party!!

Lexi Videos Galore!

Ok, I might be 'that' pet owner who takes way too many pictures and videos of her puppy! I just can't get enough of her and I assume the same for everyone else. Since I realize that not everyone (even John) finds our daily adventures as entertaining as I do, I don't want to inundate your phone or email with all of our videos.

Instead, I've created a YouTube channel where I can upload whatever I want and then you can pick and choose which you watch! All of them or none of them...totally up to you.

Just visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/brittanykolbeck to see more!!

Flashback Friday - March (Part 1)

There are lots of fun activities in the month of March...my birthday, Mom's birthday, Pat's birthday, St. Patty's Day, the first day of Spring, and sometimes Easter! So far, I've found TONS of March pictures dating back to 2003!! Since there are so many, I'm going to leave the Easter pics for next month and post March memories in pieces.

2003
Our March birthday celebration. I was 19 and in my Freshman year at LMU! For those of you that don't know, I share a birthday with my late great grandfather, Granddaddy, and I always think of him during this time of year. Look how tan Mom is!!

2004
My 20th birthday celebration at Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave's old house on Raspberry Way. Look how cute Camille is!!

Of course we had to get in a game of badminton.

Tara, Casie and Krystal came down to celebrate too!

Yummmm, my favorite dessert! And our little helper. ;)

2005
For some reason I couldn't find any pictures from 2005. I'm sure we were out on some sort of road trip for softball. This is the year I turned 21!!

2006
Not much from this year either. I do remember that we had a softball game on March 11th, BUT there was 100% chance of rain! To this day, I have never heard that forecast again. We thought there was no chance we'd play if there was no doubt it would rain. So the girls and I went to the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey, where we would celebrate all of our special occasions. We may have had a little too much fun! We woke up the next day and it was raining at our apartment (1 mile from campus) but nice and clear at the field! Who woulda thought?! We ended up playing...can't remember the outcome. We still get a good laugh out of that and blame it on the fact that before we played any games on that new field, it was officially blessed by LMU and its priests. God really does watch over that field.

Anyways, here are a couple softball pictures that I wanted to share. Dad and Camille relaxing at Smith Field.

Camille's softball days. Such a cutie pie.

2007
Celebrating my 23rd birthday at Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach. From left, Casie, Lauren, Britt, Samantha, Tiffany, Emily.

2008
For my 24th birthday, we took a little road trip down to the Gaslamp in San Diego. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel which was brand new at the time and beautiful. It was a great time!

Scotty being Scotty.

View of the SD Convention Center and the water beyond.

 My birthday sundae.

Simbee (Sam, Margo, Brittany) being silly.

From left, Ashley, Britt, Danny, Samatha, Tara, Rob, Margo, Brandon

My wonderful coworkers outdid themselves with my cube decorations!

And these pictures of me and my sissy's lying around were too good to leave out! Not sure this was March but who cares!!

Happy Anniversary Tara & Rob!!!

Today marks the one year anniversary for Tara and Rob. Tara and I have known each other for ten years now and met while playing softball at LMU. We quickly became best friends. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding, and she in mine.

Here is the original blogpost written by their wedding planner, our very own Lauren Smith of L-4-Love: http://www.l-4-love.com/1/post/2012/09/tara-rob-kowsaluk-31812.html.

Miss Brittany Homemaker

I've always wanted to be handy in the kitchen. And becoming a wife has kind of forced me to start figuring it out. I've been pulling a lot of different recipes from Pinterest and have been quite successful! Even though I work from home, I often have trouble finding the time to plan a meal, go to the grocery store, prepare it and have it ready at a decent time. Which is why I LOVE the crockpot!!

On Friday we had 'date night' at Costco (yes, cheap pizza dinner included!) and bought a load of meats and poultry. Then I spent a few hours chopping, mixing and preparing freezer bag meals. They are so easy! There are a lot of how-to's and freezer bag tips on the Internet. I just mix everything together and throw it in the bag with a date and a few notes on how to cook. Then I have several great options for dinner each day!!

I wanted to share a few of the recipes and, of course some pictures.

I made these spinach lasagna rolls last week and have yet to use them. They just require adding marinara sauce and baking in the oven. Link: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/04/how-to-make-your-favorite-meals-freezer.html

This link has 12 meals to prepare and freeze. She makes it very easy to shop and prep. I've made the Teriyaki   Chicken, which turnedvout great, and have another bag in the freezer...

From this site, I also made: 

Savory Chicken

Lazy Day Stew

Minus some of the veggies, which I didn't have on hand. I plan to simply add freshly chopped veggies on the day I decide to make the stew.

One of my favorite type of meats is tri-tip! Pair it with potatoes, onions, mushrooms and some red wine and I'm in heaven. The first time I ever cooked tri-tip on my own was when I was visiting Kylie in Louisiana. I called Mom to ask how to do it then headed to the grocery store. Nobody in Louisiana sold tri-tip...in fact, they would throw that part away! So I found a butcher who cut and saved the tri-tip piece especially for me. That time I cooked it in the oven and it turned out great!

In California, tri-tip is readily available. You can find it pre-marinated or in huge chunks like we did at Costco.

I decided to prepare one piece for oven cooking and another for the BBQ. The only difference was that I sliced it into strips for the BBQ bag. I used this marinade recipe: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2008/07/carols-completely-fabulous-steak.html.

And even made my own version of 'Montreal seasoning' rub! Recipe: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2008/06/eating-steak-on-south-beach-diet-and.html. Amazingly, I had all of the spices on that list!!

I didn't prepare all of the meat in freezer bags. I still have several chicken breasts and a few pounds of ground turkey which I use to make turkey meatloaf on Thursdays (John's soccer game day meal). This is the end result in our freezer!!

Yesterday we did lots of work in the backyard. We are trying to clear out what used to be a garden area so we can plant rose bushes. Then we decided to BBQ the tri-tip and have a feast outside!

And of course this pre-St. Patty's Day meal would not be complete without green beer!

We are headed to the LA Galaxy game this afternoon. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!! And I hope you enjoyed my first post from our new iPad!!