Healthy winter dinner for 4

Last night our friends Julie and Steve came over for dinner. My goals were to make something a) healthy, b) tasty, and c) low-maintenance (because I'd rather hang out with them then be in the kitchen by myself). Dan didn't get home until half an hour before they arrived, so this time it was just me in the kitchen.

Here is what I did:

First, I browned some butter and put it in the fridge while I ran a few errands to pick up things we still needed (wine, a few ingredients). Then, I made my browned butter pear tart.



While that was cooking, I pulled out the Foreman grill and plopped 4 jalepeno chicken sausages (raw, from our hippie market) on to cook.



Meanwhile, I peeled/chopped these veggies:

1 medium parsnip
1 small sweet potato
1 small celery root
2 small yukon gold potatoes
2 carrots
1 yellow onion (I did a large chop because I wanted the onions pieces to be pretty big)
about 6 or 7 large white mushrooms, quartered

I tossed the veggies together with some olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, and some salt and pepper and stuck them in a 9x13 baking pan covered with foil and roasted 'em at 425 for about 35 minutes once the pear tart was out of the oven.

When the sausages were cooked, I cut them up into chunks.

I also made spinach salads with red bell pepper, blood orange, and sauteed some thinly-sliced fennel (again with a bit of balsamic and olive oil) to go on top. Actually, by this time Dan was home so he sauteed them while I prepped the salads and appetizer.



Julie and Steve arrived and brought crusty multigrain bread. I put the leftover smoked salmon and Humboldt Fog cheese out with the herb crackers, along with some brie I'd gotten earlier and put on the stovetop to warm while the root vegetables roasted. The veggies were finished roasting by this point so I took them out and popped the bread in the oven to warm for a few minutes. We all indulged in cheese and crackers and salmon. I tossed the sausage chunks around with the veggies to reheat them. The bread came out and I sliced it up.



Dinner was served. It was delicious. I'm eating the small amount of leftover root vegetable/sausage thing for lunch today.