Instructions: AROUND this time of year, if you are like me, you are graciously accepting bags of zucchini from neighbors who are up to their eyeballs with their summer crop. Facing a mound of zucchini, I did what any Internet lover would do - I went to one of my favorite recipe Web sites, www.allrecipes.com, and looked up two of their most popular zucchini recipes: Abbys Super Zucchini Loaf and Connies (Zucchini) Mock Crab Cakes.

Any recipe featuring zucchini should be mostly healthful dont you think? It just shouldnt be dripping in oil or egg yolks. So I took these two recipes and cut as much extra fat and calories as possible. I loved the result - I cant wait for my next zucchini delivery so I can make them again. The Zucchini Loaf is lightened this week, but look for Connies (Zucchini) Mock Crab Cakes in next weeks Recipe Doctor.

For the zucchini bread, I cut the oil from 1 cup to 1/3 cup and switched to canola. I made up the 2/3 cup by adding 1/3 cup of maple syrup and 1/3 cup of fat-free sour cream. I then trimmed the sugar back by 1/3 cup since I had added some sugar with the maple syrup. What makes this bread a little different from your everyday zucchini bread is that it calls for extracting the extra water from the grated zucchini using salt and a pressing technique. The zucchini holds its texture well in the batter, and the bread turns out very moist (not gummy).

Instead of 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, I used 3/4 cup of chopped macadamia nuts. I happened to have some left over from another recipe project, and Ive got to say they complemented the zucchini and cinnamon perfectly.

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