Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (oat flour/gluten free)

All things pumpkin! Yum-we love the delicious, warming tastes of fall!  We've been trying to reduce our flour intake to see if it helps us with inflammation. So far, we feel better.  I've adapted a traditional recipe to reduce the amount of fat and sugar.  We replaced oats with the flour traditionally called for in the recipe.  If you'd like to make your own oat flour, which we did, put 2 c rolled oats into a blender for about 1-2 minutes until they form a flour. You'll have a little left over.

Ingredients:

• 1 c pumpkin puree
• 2 c oat flour (or you could use traditional flour)*use certified gluten free oats if you need
• 1/4 c applesauce (no sugar)
• 1/2-3/4 cup of honey (we used 3/4, but could definitely reduce to 1/2)
• 1/4 c water
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c cranberries (we buy them now when in season and freeze them for the year)

Instructions:

1. Grind oats in blender if making your own flour and measure out 2 cups
2. Place all ingredients into a mixer 
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan (we used a large pan).  This is enough for 1 large pan (9x5) or 8.5x4 plus a mini loaf pan
   
4. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour 15 min or until tester comes out clean

Nutritional Benefits:

• Good Source of Vitamin A (pumpkin): helps in bone and teeth strength, healing, and blood circulation
• Good Source of Vitamin C (cranberries): cranberries are an awesome source of this healing/disease preventing vitamin
• Anti-inflammatory: oats and above vitamins help to reduce inflammation, aiding in heart & dental health
• Low in fat: no added oils, better for heart health
• Reduced sugar, no refined sugars: helps decrease blood sugar spikes
• High in Fiber and Calcium (oats): oats are high in both of these, as well as taking longer for the body to digest.  This helps to regulate blood sugar spikes.  Oats are also anti-inflammatory