Wild, black or brown rice makes its way into many of our recipes at home. Not only is it tasty and healthy, it's also a pretty inexpensive and clean source of calories. If you're looking to add a fun punch of flavor to your rice recipes, this is an easy way to do so.

This recipe comes to you straight out of our 4 Week Meal Plan (the omnivore & vegetarian version; the vegan does not include dairy, of course). The plan has five different calorie allotments to choose from so that you can use it for weight loss, maintenance, or gain. We love it because it's quick, easy, and can easily be thrown together, even if you don't have all of the exact ingredients - one of the great things about veggies is that you can go through your refrigerator and improvise based off of what you happen to have on hand! We also really appreciate how easy this dish is to throw in a container and pack for a lunch or dinner away from home.

You will need:
Brown, black, or wild rice
Walnuts (almonds are a tasty & nutritious substitute)
Raisins
Feta cheese (leave out the feta and you've officially got a yummy vegan recipe!)
Lemon juice
Green onion

How to:
Cook rice according to package directions - typically, 1 part rice to 3 parts water; let simmer for 45-50 minutes. Mix in chopped nuts, raisins, feta and onion. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Because this particular recipe is from our 4 Week Meal Plans, we are going to provide the recipe in the same format; you can build the dish off of the number of calories that you want to take in for that particular meal. If you want to make a large batch for leftovers or a group of people, triple or quadruple the ingredients for highest calorie allotment. As always, and no matter which calorie allotment you might choose, remember that there are certain ingredients that you can increase as you please, in this case, the lemon juice or green onions both drastically influence flavor without changing the calories significantly.
                                                 

Ingredients by caloric value:    
Brown or wild rice (cooked):       .75 Cup       1 Cup      1.5 Cup    1.75 Cup
Walnuts                                      .25 Tbsp     .5 Tbsp     1 Tbsp     1.25 Tbsp
Raisins                                       1 Tbsp         2 Tbsp     4 Tbsp      5 Tbsp
Feta cheese                               1 oz             1 oz          1.5 oz        2 oz
Lemon juice                                1 Tbsp        1 Tbsp      2 Tbsp     2 Tbsp
Green onion                                2 Tbsp        2 Tbsp      3 Tbsp     4 Tbsp
Calories for entire serving:          236             312           500           645

Time saving tip: When you cook something like wild rice, quinoa, etc. make a large batch - much larger than you need for any one meal. Store them in your fridge (we've upcycled a bunch of big empty glass peanut butter jars and use them as our tupperware!) and they will keep for up to a week.These wholesome grains are the staples that make it easy to make smart, sound nutritional decisions when they are conveniently waiting for you, precooked, in your refrigerator.