Pumpkin Nut Loaf

This cake is delicious with your morning coffee or tea, and also makes a nice dessert with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt or low-fat ice cream.

It's chock-full of healthful ingredients, such as whole-wheat flour, pumpkin, carrots and nuts.

For a sweeter loaf, add the dried cranberries and increase the sugar to one cup. If desired, substitute other nuts you have on hand, such as chopped walnuts or slivered almonds. Chocolate chips make a nice addition, too.If you don't have whole-wheat flour on hand, it's OK to use white flour instead.

Recipe: Pumpkin Nut Loaf

(10 servings)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

¼ cup canola oil

1 egg

2 egg whites

½ cup grated carrots

¼ cup lightly toasted pine nuts

¼ cup chopped pistachio nuts

½ cup dried cranberries (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, blend flours with next five ingredients (through salt). Add pumpkin, oil, egg and egg whites, carrots, nuts and cranberries. Stir until evenly blended.

Spoon batter into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out dry. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert on rack to complete cooling.