My children are cereal fiends. They can easily empty a box, and sometimes two, at a single breakfast. I don’t buy a lot of the stuff, since for the money there are more nutritious options available (eggs or steel-cut oats rank at the top of my list), but one or two mornings a week we do have cereal for breakfast.

Another way to stretch my dollar with cereal is by making this muffin batter. I try to mix it up on Sunday evenings and then we have fresh-baked muffins for five mornings. There are also versions of this recipe using Raisin Bran cereal. Just google “refrigerator bran muffins” and you’ll see the variety of options.

I add raisins and top each muffin with a sprinkling of brown sugar right before baking.

From the More-with-Less cookbook.

Place in bowl:
2 C. ready-to-eat bran cereal (All-Bran or Fiber One)

Pour over:
2 C. boiling water

Set aside to cool.

Cream together in large mixing bowl:
1 C. butter
1 1/2 C. sugar
4 eggs

Add and beat in:
1 qt. buttermilk
soaked bran mixture

Sift together:
5 C. flour
5 t. baking soda
1 t. salt

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and fold until flour is moistened.

Fold in:
4 C. additional dry bran cereal

Store batter in covered containers in refrigerator. Keeps 3-4 weeks. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 and fill well-greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes.