Have you thought about your Thanksgiving recipes yet? This orange balsamic chicken is what I will be serving family and friends for the main dish. If you’re hosting guests, it can also be served as a meal ahead of the holiday or after, if you’re ready for something other than turkey!  For a protein option, I always use chicken instead of turkey. However, you can still make this recipe with turkey. We just enjoy chicken better!

The acidity of the marinade in this recipe allows the chicken to get tender and juicy, so once baked you will not have dried chicken. The end result is a flavorful, tasty, juicy chicken recipe!

The marinade is key in this recipe. It’s a combination of orange juice, balsamic vinegar and spices. The cinnamon and nutmeg bring a subtle flavor that is indicative of the holidays. The perfect flavor combination!

When you use orange juice in this recipe, opt for Florida’s Natural® Brand Orange Juice which is made from one simple ingredient — Florida oranges. And only Florida oranges. No water, sugar or preservatives are added.

• Florida’s Natural orange juice comes from pure Florida oranges. There are no artificial flavors or ingredients.
• Florida’s Natural doesn’t fuss with their growers’ oranges — they’re simply squeezed, gently pasteurized and poured into cartons that ensure a straight-from-the-grove taste that my family loves.

Serving this orange balsamic chicken can be done with any veggies of your choice. I opted for brussels sprouts, since they are in season, and potatoes, but any baked vegetables will do. Other popular options if you prefer, are green beans and mashed potatoes.

I hope you get to try this orange balsamic chicken recipe. The orange juice and balsamic vinegar mixture together with the spices gives this recipe the perfect flavor combination for the upcoming holidays. It is a very simple, yet delicious recipe that I am sure your friends and family will love.

Enjoy!

Orange balsamic chicken

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 2-3 hrs

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

 

• 3 lbs. chicken wings and thighs, trimmed of excess fat
• 1 lb vegetables of choice, quartered
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

For the marinade

• 1 cup Florida's Natural orange juice
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• ½ tsp Celtic salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Place the chicken pieces in a large dish.

Whisk together all of the ingredients in the marinade. Place the chicken in a large dish, pour marinade over the chicken and mix. Place in the refrigerator and let sit for 2-3 hours, tossing every 30 minutes. Save the marinade.

After marinating, place the chicken pieces, skin side up, on a baking dish and arrange vegetables around the chicken. Bake in a pre-heated 375-degree oven for about 50-60 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces. After the first 25 minutes of roasting time, you can begin to brush the chicken with the leftover marinade every 10 minutes or so. I did about three times to keep the chicken moist and flavorful.

After the chicken and vegetables are baked, sprinkle chopped parsley over the top and serve while warm.

The post Orange balsamic chicken appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

This is actually my first time grilling peaches. It was a bit of a pain at first because I forgot to grease some of them and they got stuck to the grill pan. Next time I will also try to grill them on my outside grill. My husband is actually the one that uses it all the time, I always stick with the grill stove top so will see how using the outside grill work out.

For the balsamic reduction sauce I used Truvia brown sugar blend. I think the balsamic reduction dressing made the salad stand out even more. My family went back for seconds so I guess that was a good sign. This salad was so simple yet so delicious!

I love making my own salad dressings. This one takes a bit longer to make because of the reduction step but most of my other salad dressing recipes literally take just about 3 minutes to put together. Way healthier and better than store bought varieties.

For this grilled peach salad you can add any other veggies you may like. I thought about some type of dried fruit or even nuts. Jut get creative and make it your own. I know I will be making this salad a few more time this summer. I think it was one of the best combo salads I have made in a while.

Enjoy!

Grilled peach salad

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh peaches, halved
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 6 oz mixed greens
• 6 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 1 red onion, sliced

Dressing

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup Truvia brown sugar blend
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• Celtic salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

To make the balsamic reduction, mix balsamic vinegar with sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until glaze is reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Keep a careful eye towards the end as you don't want to burn it. When it coats a spoon, it will be thick enough.

Preheat your grill or stove top grill pan. Brush peaches generously with olive oil and grill on each side for about 3 minutes. You don't want the peaches to be soft and mushy so keep an eye on them.

Transfer peaches to a clean plate and let them cool.

In a large mixing bowl add the rest of the salad ingredients followed by the peaches. Add some of the balsamic reduction with the olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and toss to combine.

Serve immediately.

The post Grilled peach salad appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

These are the best Roasted asparagus with balsamic tomatoes ever. I love asparagus and together with the tomatoes was superb.

This recipe comes from my friend’s newly released cookbook, Prevention RD’s Everyday Healthy Cooking: 100 Light and Delicious Recipes to Promote Energy, Weight Loss, and Well-Being This is her second cooking book. She also has a food blog called Prevention RD that I think you should check out. She has a lot of healthy recipes that I am sure you will like.

I have been able to also try a couple of other recipes from her book. One that I also enjoyed tremendously was the crock pot chicken tortilla soup. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the recipe because it literally disappeared of the table. That recipe is on page 70 so if you get the book try that recipe, you will love it.

Not only this cookbook contains 100 recipes but none have more than 500 calories per serving. Nicole has a passion for food-nutrition and healthy living, which translate into her recipes. This will make a great gift so I hope you get a chance to purchase it.

As a great gesture, Nicole has offered three copies of her cookbook for a giveaway.

To enter the giveaway: Giveaway is now closed

You can do any or all of the following additional entries for a total of three entries. Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. If you already do either one of the following the entries still count.

• Like Eat Good 4 life on Instagram
• Like Eat Good 4 Life on Pinterest
• Like Eat Good 4 Life on Facebook

Rules:

• Anyone that live in the US can enter.
• Entries must be submitted by Monday December 15th 12am EST.
• Three winners will be randomly chosen and will have 48 hours to respond to my email or another winner will be chosen.

Roasted asparagus with balsamic tomatoes

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes max!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 10 oz cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, I added more
• 1/4 tsp Celtic salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Break tough end of the asparagus off and place them in the roasting pan.

Drizzle over 3 teaspoons of olive, salt and pepper and combine with the asparagus. Bake for 15 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, in a small skillet, over high heat add the remainder 1 teaspoon of olive oil and cook the cherry tomatoes for 5 mintues. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook further for 3 minutes or until most of it has evaporated.

Serve tomatoes over the asparagus.

Recipe source, Prevention RD's Everyday Healthy Cooking: 100 Light and Delicious Recipes to Promote Energy, Weight Loss, and Well-Being

Nutrition facts calculated based on the recipe giving 4 servings.

The post Roasted asparagus with balsamic tomatoes and a cookbook giveaway appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.