Wild Rice Salad

6 cups water
12 oz wild rice (I use 1 box Uncle Ben's and 6 oz of brown rice to mix it up)
1 tsp salt
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3/4 C dried cranberries (I mix Craisins and golden raisins)
1 Cup chopped fresh parsely
3/4 C toasted chopped pecans (I mix walnuts, pecans and pine nuts)
4 chopped scallions or green onions
1 C diced yellow tomatoe or grape tomatoes halved
1/2 Cup raspberry vinagrette
salt, pepper & olive oil to taste

Take the first 3 ingredients and cook the rice (brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice). Allow the rice to cool and mix it with the remaining ingredients. 

Zucchini-Carrot Cupcakes

Here's the basic recipe:

3/4 C sugar
1/3 C Br sugar
1/4 C molasses
3/4 C oil
2 eggs
2 C flour
3/4 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1 1/2 C shredded zucchini
1/2 C shredded carrots
3/4 C walnuts

Bake 350 for 25 min for muffins (or 55 min for a loaf)

My variations may make your head spin, but I really never make it the way the basic recipe goes... It actually tastes best as is, but I pile on more healthy substitutions that really don't make it taste better... it just makes it healthier...

-I take out 1 tablespoon each out of the sugars
-I substitute unsweetened applesauce for most of the oil (1/2 C apple sauce + 1/4C oil)
-I use only 1C white flour and make a combo of whole wheat, rye, spelt, and soy flour to make the other cup
-I also add 1/4 C oatmeal and a couple tablespoons each of wheat germ and ground flaxseed meal
- I increase the cinnamon to 1 1/2 Tablespoons (cinnamon=good!)
-I add a handful of raisins and cut up dried figs
-The molasses isn't necessary (I only buy it for this recipe) so you can just skip it or up the br sugar a bit or use 1-2T honey

I don't have an exact recipe for the frosting. But here's a ballpark...

1/2 package cream cheese
1T honey
2T powder sugar
1 small carton of whipping cream

I whip the cream cheese with a mixer, then add the honey and powdered sugar. In another bowl, I whip the cream until it looks like whipped cream. I put the cream cheese mix into the whipped cream and mix it together.

Happy baking!

-Theresa