Cupcake Pies

So I bought an awesome book from BJ's. "What's New Cupcake?" from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

I looked through it and found a cupcake for every occasion and everyone!!! But - I was having company. I was having my grandma, aunt and parents over. And with three little kids - I had to make sure it was easy. I knew wanted to make something good and homemade because - my grandma had 8 kids and every meal was a feast. And - it was my first dinner real "adult" dinner party (OK - with three kids too - but still an intimate dinner party non the less).

So - my dessert was the first thing I wanted to figure out. My gram makes THE BEST pies - the best apple pie - so I did my version of baking pies - I made cupcakes. Aren't these awesome - and they were SO SUPER EASY!!! I made the cupcakes the night before - the kids separated the M&M's (with bribes they could get a piece of chocolate if they didn't eat them - it worked!)

Then I decorated them while they were still sleeping in the morning - they turned out SO super cute!!!

For the rest of my meal - SO easy, and SO yummy!!!!

Main meal - Roaster Chicken. I got the roaster bags you put in the oven - sprinkled a little flour in it - put the chicken in, and put Mrs. Dash over it - set it on low - and forgot about it.

Mashed Potato's - here is the BEST secret! BJ's mashed Potato's. I put two containers in a dish - put butter on top, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, bacon and some of the bacon greece. (Yeah - those are healthy!) Ok - not healthy - but SO GOOD!!!! Put them in the oven at 350 for like 40 minutes - pretty much when everyone walked in the door.

On to the veggie - I did green beans wrapped in bacon. WOW. I got them from Our Best Bites Seriously - I printed out all there recipes - they look AWESOME!! Here is a picture of what they have on there site:

Don't they look awesome!!! That is pretty much what mine looked like :) Forgot to take a picture. But - I made a slight modification, because I didn't want to go back to the store. I used extra garlic instead of the onion, and balsamic vinegar instead of the rice vinegar. I should have doubled the recipe. I went to get 2nds - and my husband was like - Opps - I had three. This is guy who doesn't like veggies! They were AWESOME!!! I will make them again - and I will take pictures next time. But - again - so easy!!! I made them while the kids napped - and put them in the oven with the potato's when they went in.

Dishes were done when the guests arrived - and we had an awesome 4 generation dinner together - it was an awesome night - with great food!