Man, we had a couple of really bad suppers this week. I mean B-A-D.

We started the week with Cashew Lime Chicken with a spinach and mandarin orange salad. This was actually good. I don’t think the wee beasts ate any of the spinach in the salad but they did pick out the oranges and liked the chicken. Fruit and protein down the hatch in one meal. I’m happy about that. Rating: 4

Then we moved on to the Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Sweet Mustard Dip and an orzo salad. The chicken was baked and I don’t know why I continue to try to bake a chicken with a crust. It just doesn’t work. The top always comes out well but the bottom is wet, gummy, slimy, nasty. I could go on but I’ll spare you the disgusting adjectives. The biggest problem with the meal wasn’t the chicken, though. It was the orzo salad. I used a recipe that called for a home-made sun-dried tomato vinaigrette and giardiniera veggies in it. I’ve seen those veggies in the store before but never really paid any attention to them. I wish I had continued with that. First, the vinaigrette came out more like a thick paste. It was way too sour. The veggies must be pickled somehow because they are sour, too. This salad was soooooooooooo outrageously disgusting that we couldn’t eat it. We actually scraped it off plates and The Doc decided to feed it to the dogs. One of the dogs wouldn’t eat it. That’s how bad it was. Rating: 0

So the next night was supposed to be leftovers night, but because we had to toss the previous night’s food, I had to make a grocery store trip. I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies. I thought a good dinner with veggies to make up for the really bad one would be nice. Unfortunately, I decided to try the chicken stir-fry recipe on the back of the bag. Bad idea. Very bad. I really don’t understand why I did it. It called for a can of cream of mushroom soup. In stir-fry. Yeah. I can hear you making those gross noises from here. Rating: 0

Luckily, we were all set for Pineapple Shrimp Skewers with Rum Sauce and Coconut Rice the next day. The rum sauce didn’t taste like rum and I didn’t feel like adding so much more rum that my beasts would end up drunk, so we just didn’t use it. But the shrimp and rice were alright, so I’ll have to give this a decent grade. Rating: 3.75

Chicken-Cheddar Quesadillas with White Bean-Green Pea Guacamole was on the schedule to end the week. Hallelujah. Something with taste. I know the name of the guacamole might scare some people off, but it was actually good! I didn’t tell The Doc what it was made from and he happily devoured it. The chicken was quick and easy. Throw some chicken in a pan and brown it, add a can of green chiles and a dash of liquid smoke to give it some depth. Yum. Rating: 4.25

I’ll try to avoid so much yuck in the coming week. Big A has requested tacos with bacon. I think I’ll have to skip that to get us back on the right track.