Country Crock Spread the Love of Vegetables Campaign {Veggie Party Kit Review & $200 American Express Gift Card Giveaway}

{This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Nebraska Fillemans, Freddie, and Nicole Carter!}

My husband comes from a family that puts butter on just about everything, whereas growing up I was used to putting it on bread and that's about it.

So, for us, the happy medium has always come in the form of Country Crock. If you open our refrigerator at any point, there is a large tub of it sitting front and center because it is the perfect thing for cooking, toasting and, a favorite of the kids, making vegetables even more delicious.

Fortunately, convincing my girls that veggies are a thing to love hasn't been too difficult, but we have surely had our ups and downs. Some days green beans are met with cheers and excitement and other days they get pushed away in disgust. One afternoon they can't get enough of the carrots that we're snacking on and the next they'll look at me like I must have suggested we eat sticks.

What's a mom to do to stop the complaining but still make sure that all of the members of my family are getting the benefits from the healthy options that are on the table?

That's where pulling out that tub of Country Crock always comes in handy for fast and simple cooking. With 70% less saturated fat than butter, Country Crock ensures that veggies will not only end up nutritious, but also delicious! And, to make that even easier for my kids to understand and enjoy, we have been having a great time participating in their Spread the Love of Vegetables campaign with our Veggie Party Kit!
This kit has been so much fun! Including things such as sample of Country Crock, a reusable eco-friendly tote, a Vegetable Chopper, a "Today I Ate a Rainbow" kids’ calendar, a Veggie Tales kids' apron, a Vegetable Cookbook, a Gardening How-To Kit, a $30 American Express Gift Card to purchase our veggies, and more, we have been immersed in all things Country Crock and have been loving it.

I have really been wanting to start a small garden with my kids and give them a way to see firsthand how vegetables grow and where they come from - not to mention encouraging them to eat more when they have played a role in the process. So starting small with our Gardening How-To Kit has been a big hit with all of us. We got all dressed in our aprons...

...planted our tomato and banana pepper seeds in their own cute little greenhouse and have been watering and watching them, just waiting for our seedlings to appear.

When these are large enough to be moved outside, I have no doubt that we'll continue our gardening and learning on a larger scale... and hopefully in the years to come this will have been just the beginning of expanding our vegetable palate to include ones that we grew ourselves!

In the meantime, we have been chopping and cooking our store-bought veggies, finding tasty recipes in our cookbook and keeping track of all of our healthy eating habits with the "Today I Ate a Rainbow" kids’ calendar. Vegetables have never been more fun!

Country Crock really has made it possible to turn vegetables from a sometimes-ignored side dish into a much-loved main part of the meal and I couldn't be happier about it! With such flavor and so many great recipe ideas from our cookbook and online, how could my kids even want to resist eating a Family-Style Vegetable Omelette, Honey-Orange Mixed Vegetables or Loaded Broccoli Mashed Potatoes?

Want to have even more excitement with Country Crock? Right now when you visit the Country Crock Facebook page you won't want to miss the “Love Your Veggies” tab on the left-hand side. There you can submit a photo of your family enjoying veggies for the chance to win $100 worth of groceries! Upload one photo per week for 8 weeks (through 7/11) for a chance to win each week and possibly be featured on the Country Crock Facebook wall as the "Family of the Week." How fun!

Is it time to Spread the Love of Vegetables to your family? Thanks to the generosity of Country Crock, three people will be able to do just that, because...

One lucky person will win a $200 American Express Gift Card and two lucky people will win Veggie Party Kits (ARV $100)!

To enter to win: Visit the Country Crock Facebook page, browse around, and let me know your favorite part or recipe. If you are not a part of Facebook, please visit the Country Crock website and tell me your favorite aspect there!

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted).

1 Extra Entry (per method) if you follow Country Crock on Twitter and/or Like them on Facebook.
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway.
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

WIN a $200 AMEX gift card or a Veggie Party Kit (ARV $100) from Country Crock! #thxmailcarrier http://bit.ly/jkLDoT #giveaway #win

2 Extra Entries (per follow method) if you follow me publicly with Google Friend Connect, subscribe to my RSS feed, subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email, become a fan on Facebook or add Thanks, Mail Carrier to your blogroll.
3 Extra Entries if you put my cute button up on your blog. Please leave an address where it can be found.
3 Extra Entries if you blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Please leave an address where it can be found.

Giveaway will end on June 8th at 11:59pm CST. Do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile, I have to have a way to contact the winner. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Country Crock for providing a Veggie Party Kit for me to review as well as a $200 American Express gift card for one lucky giveaway winner and Veggie Party Kits for two lucky giveaway winners. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.