Potluck Survival Guide by Cherie Kimmons

Mel's Thoughts:

Five Star Publications recently sent me an autographed copy of the book, Potluck Survival Guide, by Cherie Kimmons.  This book is such a handy resource for anyone who needs meal ideas for their kids' soccer team or football team or for a church function.  The book is meant to help those who are frazzled by the thought of providing just the right food for a potluck meal, especially when it comes to kids.  The author tries to help us make healthy choices when it comes to preparing those meals by educating her readers throughout the book.  There are tips for feeding athletes before a game and after a game.  There are menus and recipes included in this book.  There are even snippets on feeding larger crowds.  Here are some of the recipes included in Potluck Survival Guide:

• Roasted Chicken Thighs
• Divine Deviled Eggs
• Guacamole With Tomatillos
• Sweet and Hot Bacon
• Layered Hamburger Casserole
• Texas Shepherd's Pie
• Cheesy Meatballs
• Baked Hot Wings
• Pizza Sandwiches
• Overnight Company Potatoes
• Easy Italian Spinach
• Pink Lady Frozen Salad
• Bok Choy Salad
• Creamy New York Cheesecake
• Congo Brownies

....and many more.  I love how the author covers certain aspects to cooking certain things and tries to educate the reader or brainstorm with the reader on the best choices and options.  She gives information on ingredients and her favorite sites for finding some of those ingredients.  This book also gives decorating tips for those occasions for which you are cooking.

You can purchase Potluck Survival Guide from Five Star Publications for $18.96, regularly $24.95. 

(Disclosure: We were provided this book, free of charge, by Five Star Publications, in association with MamaBuzz.)

* The Queen Bees behind Mama Buzz *

It is said that going into business together can make or break a friendship. While this isn't exactly a "business", it is a partnership and in our case, doing Mama Buzz together has only served to strengthen "the Melissa's" friendship.

It actually began in college.

The friendship that is, not Mama Buzz.

As life would have it, each young woman graduated and went and lived life, losing touch in the process. Then, thanks to the wonders of Facebook, they found each other and renewed their friendship in 2008.

In 2009, Mama Buzz was brainstormed into existence between the two women. Through working on it together, a close friendship - -despite miles and time between them - - has blossomed once again.


Disclaimer: We worked on our profiles separately and had no idea what the other was going to say . . . We're kindred spirits, if you can't tell. ;)

Melissa J. gave up a private counseling practice in 2007 when her miracle baby was born, after a two year struggle with infertility. With no regrets, she traded in her dream of a well-known private counseling practice in exchange for the dream of being a stay-at-home mom.

Since that turning point in her life, Melissa has turned to the world of in-home child care and free-lance writing, dreaming of the day when she becomes a published author.

God is her first love. Her husband is her second. Her daughter is third and her yet-to-be, forever children are fourth.

Investing in children, teens, and young women is a passion of Melissa's. Having run through the gamut that life cruelly hands to so many in today's world, her passion is to pass on the love and hope that she eventually found in her healing journey.

Melissa's ultimate dream, alongside her husband, is to begin a home for abused, neglected, and terminally ill children. The children no one else wants. This home will be self-sustaining with wind and solar power and a greenhouse. Both Melissa and her husband hope to use everything from art to animals to gardening, all as therapy for these hurting children. They long to give them a place of safety, love, and laughter, as well as a place where they can find healing.

Melissa's hobbies include; reading, writing, gardening, learning about the all-natural-self-sustaining life and getting word out about great book's and products. Music feeds her soul, art inspires her mind, and nature soothes her spirit.

Melissa's personal blog can be found at Hidden Valley Simplicity. There, you can read everything from book reviews to the grief that surrounds infertility to thoughts on living in the "hidden valley" as a stay-at-home-mom to trial-and-error experiences in her search for the all-natural lifestyle.

Mel is a homeschooling mama to two adventurous little boys, Jacob and Jaden. After working as a nurse and a teacher, she realized where her priorities truly lay, and she made the decision to stay home with her boys. She has no doubt that this is where God wants her right now and has honestly never been happier. Life has never been easy, including losing her first owned house with her husband, Dan, to a housefire three days before Jaden was born....but God has sustained and supplied them with everything they truly "needed."

Mel has since found a true passion for writing. She always loved to pick up a pencil and just start writing and come up with whatever came out on the paper, but she never realized how much it truly enriched her life and soul to do so. She hopes to start a book about her grandmother's dramatic life before the year is out; she longs to be a published author as well. Right now, she writes articles and short pieces, and she is also learning how to write literature for children. She loves all things blogging, and her personal blog, Real Heart Prints, has topics like motherhood, recipes, devotionals, crafting, reviews on books, movies, and other products, giveaways, and all things home and garden, etc.

Missions has always had a "sweet" spot in Mel's heart, especially anything to do with inner-city ministries in New York City. She and Dan look forward to some day adopting, whether it be domestic or internationally. They just want to give other children a loving home and show them the light of Jesus.

Mel's hobbies include reading, singing with the choir at church (which truly fills her heart with joy and gives her a "God high" so to speak), sewing, baking, anything outdoors, gardening, scrapbooking, and spending time with the fam. She loves to review products and get the word out on things that really help other Mamas; she especially loves great educational products that are not only fun but teach. She loves good music and loves to dance around the kitchen with her boys, laughing and giggling all the way. God is good, therefore, life (although not always easy, in any sense of the word) is good.

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