Continuing the Clean-It-Out recipe march, today is a super-flexible quickbread recipe (see PB Bonbons and tomorrow, granola bars!).  Based on a recipe from my dear Classics professor in college (the type who called tests “Opportunities” …for his students to show him their abilities–his recipe prowess was much more appreciated than his sense of humor).

3 1/2 cups flour (any mix of whole wheat, oat, almond, or all-purpose flour that you need to use up…)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg (plus some  allspice, and/or cloves–whatever you need to use up, or whatever strikes you for the fruit flesh you’re using)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup butter, melted (or oil, or margarine, or smart balance…)

2 cups canned pumpkin (or a whole can, or one-to-two large roasted sweet potato(es), or three-to-four large bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup water

3 cups sugar

Combine wet ingredients + sugar in one bowl, and dry ingredients in another bowl (this particular loaf used 3 eggs and 1/4 cup ground flax, because I had a lot of that to use up,too). Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, then pour into either 1 bundt pan, or two loaf pans (or two round cake pans, maybe?).  As you can see, this batch *also* had a good helping of walnuts; you could add coconut (i wasn’t bold enough–i didn’t know if the flavors would work out), or chocolate chips, or raisins or dried cranberries…

bake at 350 degrees (F) for 75 minutes.