Country Crock "Swamp Thing" Goodness!


This post is sponsored by Country Crock. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

We’ve used Country Crock in our house for as long as I can remember.  My Mom used it growing up and I still use it to cook with today.  It’s rich, creamy texture just can’t be beat.  I love to bake and cook, and almost every recipe calls for some sort of butter.  What I don’t like is how fatty it is.  There are lots of alternatives out there on the market today.

Country Crock is a good choice because it contains 70% less saturated fat and 30% fewer calories than butter, 0g trans fat, and is RD approved.  Not only does it have less fat than butter , it tastes great too!

I don’t like HARD butter either.  I mean have you ever tried to butter your bread with regular ole butter?  My bread doesn’t do so good.  Country Crock is so rich and creamy, spreads on nicely, and comes in all sorts of different varieties.  The cinnamon and honey spreads are delicious for breakfast! 

Here is a recipe I like to use Country Crock with & it’s one your kids will love to eat too!

Broccoli Swamp

Prep Time: 20 minutes




Cook Time: 50 minutes




Nutrition Information per serving: Calories 230, Calories From Fat 100, Saturated Fat 4g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 11g, Cholesterol 240mg, Sodium 410mg, Total Carbohydrate 12g, Sugars 5g, Dietary Fiber 3g, Protein 19g, Vitamin A 30%, Vitamin C 170%, Calcium 35%, Iron 10%


RECIPE


2 tbsp. Country Crock Spread

1 large bunch broccoli, about 1 1/2 pds., divided into florets
3 Tbsp. water
1 clove garlic-finely chopped
5 large eggs
1/2 cup fat-free half and half

1/4 cup low-fat Swiss cheese,shredded

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

Assorted fresh herbs (tarragon,

basil, chives, rosemary, etc.)
DIRECTIONS


Preheat oven to 350°

Spray 9-inch pie pan with no-stick cooking spray.

On the stove top melt Country Crock® Spread in a pan.

Add broccoli and cook for 2 minutes, then add water and

garlic and cook, covered for 5-7 minutes until broccoli is

bright green but firm.

Remove from heat. Set aside 1/3 of the broccoli florets for

garnish and finely chop remaining 2/3.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and half and half. Stir

in cheese and mix well. Stir in the chopped broccoli,

salt, nutmeg and pepper. Pour into pie pan and bake

for about 35-40 minutes until a knife inserted in center

comes out clean.


Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Insert

fresh herbs and reserved broccoli fl orets into the sides of
your “swamp.”

YUMMY & FUN!!!
Find this recipe HERE
I’m a Mom of a 2 year old and I’m always looking for healthy things to feed Connor.  Vegetables are one of the hardest things to feed your child.  We try to make eating fun for him so he’ll be enthusiastic about what is on his plate.  We turn eating into a game of sorts and feed each other 🙂 
Adding a little Country Crock on top of your veggies makes them tasty as well!     In fact  8 out of 10 kids think veggies with Country Crock are delicious!
The Crock Country Chronicle is a great place to find quick and simple tips and recipes to help make serving veggies fun.  It has some of the CUTEST ways you can transform the veggies on your child’s plate into something imaginative and fun! 
Whether you like to bake, or just like a good baked potato every now and then I recommend the yummy, creamy goodness that is Country Crock!  You can find a lot more recipes on Country Crock’s website HERE.  Happy cooking and baking everyone!
Are you looking for quick and simple tips and recipes to make serving veggies more fun? Download the free Clare Crespo Cookbook here for fun and whimsical recipes your family is sure to love!
You can also visit:

Country Crock’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/countrycrock
Country Crock’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/#!/countrycrock

High Five For Friday!

Big shout out to Krystyn!  Thank you so much for helping me with my domain issues! 
I am now officially at
(If you don’t mind can you update it for yourselves too!)
But- http://www.terenceandbecky.com/ will be forwarded to this new address  🙂 Yay!
Photobucket
I’m linking up with Lauren today at From My Grey Desk for her fun Friday link up !
HIGH FIVE FOR FRIDAY!
High five for fun earrings!  My new shorter hairdo really shows them off!
On the left are the Amrita Singh ones I got for FREE from Sneakpeeq!
 High five for summer time and fresh herbs.
Terence also brought me home a rosemary plant and it’s smells devine!
 High five for curls
Someone will have to hold me if this baby ever loses these goldy locks!
 High five for free makeup and skincare samples
I went with my co-worker Mimi yesterday to an open house at her “face man” aka dermotologist.
They took this crazy picture that shows the sun damage on your face…..scary!!!

 Look at all the goodies we scored!!! Woohoo! I love to play with new makeup and stuff 🙂

 High five for sweet bloggy friends!
Taylor Austyn is Connor’s girlfriend only they’ve never met.  Apparently TA likes to shower her men with Elmo and money so Connor kinda likes that! Ha ha!   Her Momma and I have been good blog buddies for years now and she’s honestly one of the SWEETEST people you will ever come across.  Thank you Tristan and TA we love you all!!!
Hope you all have a great Friday!

New Look & Updates

So as you can see I’ve changed the name of this ole blog.  And I am also going to change the domain name to https://nqa.ker.mybluehost.me/ soon so if you would PLEASE update your linky-poos when the time comes I would very much appreciate it!

(Right now I can’t figure out how to change one custom domain in Blogger and re-direct it to another custom domain in Blogger???)  If you know can you HELP???

I really wanted to get away from using our actual names and do something a little bit sassy and this seemed to fit my style and blog.  It’s going to take awhile to get everything the way I want it…but it will happen EVENTUALLY!

I am also in the process of updating the Starbucks posse on the sidebar.  If you would like to be included email me at beckylbranch@gmail.com

Have a great days sweets!

Whatcha Up to Wednesday + Cool Finds

Hi Friends!
I hope your week is going well.  I’ve been busy with work and home stuff.  It’s all I can do some days to get the dishwasher unloaded and loaded again after a long day at work.  Thank God I have a wonderful job with great people…and friends.  It makes life a lot easier.  I’ve worked at jobs I’ve hated before and it can make life miserable….so I’m happy I’m in a place I love 🙂
Among other things Terence and I are thinking of making some improvements to our house.  Like installing outdoor landscape lighting.  If you have it would you mind telling me if you think it was worth the cost and effort? 
We are also thinking of having our home painted with some COLOR.  If you’ve seen pictures of our house everything in it is builder beige.  Does anyone know someone that does color consultations? 
AND-I’m also thinking of doing a MAJOR blog revamp…..changing it all up.  Name and everything.
We shall see…..
Thanks for all your Instagram love and names 🙂 woohoo!
Okay now to fun finds of the week:
Behold my mess of scarves from the closet
I found this scarf organizer at Container Store for $5 bucks

Much better…You pull them through the loops and they don’t get tangled!  Cool eh?

These are pics are from a few weekends before Easter we went out for Mexican food with our buds Adam and Christa.  They spoil our child to pieces and we love them 🙂
These are some Texas sized nachos:
They also gave our child a HUGE chocolate egg with a duck inside.  Thanks Auntie Christa and Uncle Adam!  I had a sugar high all week and I now love you forever!
Another thing I am loving right now are Macbeth Collections notepads.  They are so fun and colorful.  I’m a bit obsessed with them and you can find them all HERE
Have a great hump day lovelies…I need coffee….
I am going to revamp the Starbucks wall as well.  I am thinking of doing a feature on each person on the Starbucks wall every week.  So if you want to be included just email me your mug with a cup o crack!
email: beckylbranch@gmail.com
xoxo Becky





Instagram for Android

Droid users have finally arrived and I’m kinda addicted to this Instagram thing….if you want to follow me I’m under the name “beckylbranch” & if you leave me your username in the comments I’ll follow you too 🙂

 Edward Twilight Barbie doll!
It’s so much fun to see how everyone documents their lives through their cell phones…what did we ever do without them???

Win $50 from Olay & BlogHer!!!

As most of you know I turned the dreaded 30 last year, and in a few months I’ll take one more step towards “middle age”.  Ugh….did I just say that? 

Like most women I have concerns about my skin.  When I look in the mirror I see tiny lines starting to appear. Sun spots have started to make their appearance known.  I’m more self-conscious about my skin now than I ever have been.  I always try and take steps to protect my skin from the sun and environment. 

I want to tell you all about a great product I started using.  It’s called Olay Total Effects Tone Correcting Moisturizer.  I have very sensitive skin and freckle from the sun easily.  The first thing I noticed was that the moisturizer minimized the appearance of my freckles and sun spots. 

Unlike most moisturizers I’ve used, my skin felt refreshed and maintained moisture for an extended amount of time throughout the day.  I’ve used products in the past and my skin just absorbs it, sucks it up, and gets dry all over again!  Not with Olay Total Effects Tone Correcting Moisturizer.  I felt a refreshing glow throughout the day. 

Whenever I am looking for facial moisturizer I look for two key things: prevents signs of aging & protection from the sun.  Olay Total Effects Tone Correcting Moisturizer provides both of these, plus it’s tinted.  There are days I don’t feel like putting on a full face of makeup, but I still want to look decent if I need to get out of the house.  With one pump I get the perfect amount of glowing moisturizer. It goes on light and non-greasy, which is also a plus in my book!  I feel at ease knowing I’ve done something good for my skin and I look great too!  I hope you’ll give it a try and remember it’s never too early to start protecting your skin.

 

Enter for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Answer this question:

What are some of the ways you carve out time to take care of your skin?

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to U.S. Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by email. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 4/9 – 5/16

Be sure to visit the Olay TE page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win! While we’re on the subject of looking good, you might want to check out the “Looking Your Best” posts in the Life Well Lived section of BlogHer.com. There are some great tips and expert posts!

I was compensated and provided free product for this post.  The opinions expressed herein are my own.

Abundantly Blessed : Easter 2012

I hope you all had a very blessed Easter!  We had a great weekend.  Time spent with family, good food, and memories made. 

My kind of weekend 🙂

We had a great service at church.  It was very crowded!  It’s nice to see that many people in church, but it’s also sad that the seats aren’t filled like that every Sunday.  Then it thunder stormed the rest of the day.  I made cajun pasta for lunch, Connor & I napped, and Terence went to Home Depot.

I’m feeling so blessed this year.  I have a loving husband, a sweet little boy, and a beloved family.  We both have jobs, a home, and cars.  We are blessed beyond measure, yet I am so undeserving of any of this….I’m so not worthy.  Thanks be to God that he gave us Jesus, for without Him and his risen life we would not be here.  Thank you! Thank you Lord!

Here is my family 2012 :

 Before church and the rain this morning
(I got my hair done chopped off this weekend.  It’s a lot shorter, I’m getting used to it and I love it!  My friend Jenne does a great job, if you live in DFW email me at beckylbranch@gmail.com if you want her info)
 My boys

On Saturday with got together for dinner and an Easter egg hunt at Granna & Pop’s house.  We let Connor open his Easter basket a little bit early so he could use it for the hunt

 All the EGGS 🙂
 Getting ready to let the kiddos take off!

 Cousin Lesley is so much fun!
 Great Granddaddy & Nell
 Abundantly blessed….

Hope you had a great weekend!  I’m so blessed to know you all and pray that God will continually bless your lives as well.  xoxo – Becky