Green Lentil and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Mustard-Tarragon Vinaigrette

For a salad, this is one fabulous dish. I've decided that roasted vegetables are my favorite food. I'd pick roasted vegetables over a cupcake even. It was a little hard to keep my hands away from the freshly roasted turnips and red onions so that there were enough left to combine with the lentils into the dressing. But, as you can see, I managed to control my desires and not just nosh on lightly browned, droolingly delicious, freshly roasted turnips.

Though this dish takes a while to make, it's very easy, and pretty much fool-proof. Oh, and I chose to use arugula for my tender green of choice. Me and POTUS have similar tastes in greens.

We're giving this dinner a 4. For a salad, it's a 5 hands down, but Tommie and I aren't the hugest salad fans. So, 4 stars it is.

Root Vegetable Tarts with Rosemary

This picture does not do this meal justice. Hubby and I ate this for the first time tonight, and we could not believe how delicious it was. It's heavier than my delicate stomach is used to because of the scrummy puff pastry dough (Dufour brand), but I would definitely make this again for a treat or for company. It was very easy to make and has just a few ingredients: turnips (my fave), potatoes, carrots, and red onions seasoned very delicately and baked into puff pastry.

I give this meal 4 stars out of 5, deducting a half a point for being heavy and another half a point for not including a protein. As a vegetarian I like to fit in some protein with every meal, and it makes life easier if it's an ingredient in the recipe. (Note: I'd like to come up with a more creative rating system, but until then, stars it is. If you have any suggestions, let me know.)