Cereal Muffins

Hi, all!

This post is a bit different for me. It marks a transition of sorts.

Today is Secret Recipe Club reveal day, which is always exciting. I love finally getting to post what I've spent a month thinking about,and I love going through all of the blogs in my group waiting to see who shared a recipe from my blog.

But today's post marks my last with the Secret Recipe Club.  At least for now.

I'm sure you've noticed that my posting has slowed down significantly. And for that I apologize. This blog has been such a wonderful thing for me for so long.  Through this blog, I have been a part of amazing communities and have met some really wonderful, true friends.

As time goes on, though, things in my life have changed, and what is best for me at this time is to take a little break. Not from cooking and baking - that is something that I'll always do. But for a little while, I am going to do it just for me and my family.

It was with a heavy heart that I handed over the reins of The Daring Kitchen, and now, that I take a break from SRC.

Knowing that this would be my last SRC post, and that I'd only be posting sporadically for a while at this point, I wanted to make sure to choose something special. Which was made easy by the fact that my assigned blog this month was From Grandma Loy's Kitchen. This blog is always amazing, and has such fantastic recipes, collected over a delicious lifetime and shared with love.

There were so many things that I wanted to try, but one caught my eye and I just couldn't get it out of my head. Simple as it sounded, it also sounded absolutley perfect: Cereal Muffins.

I mean, with two kids, all kinds of activities and very busy mornings, what could be better? Two easy breakfasts, all rolled into one!

The recipe is pretty simple. It recommends using bran cereal, Cheerios or corn flakes.  I chose to use multigrain Cheerios.

To start the recipe, pour milk over the cereal and let it sit.

While those soak, I prepared the rest of my ingredients. I did make one change. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of oil. No problem, But. What goes great on cereal, that can also be used as an oil substitute? Bananas! Little man helped me mash.

Soaked cereal, mashed banana, some dry ingredients and one beaten egg.

Yup - ready to go. Now just mix everything together...

 ...and scoop into muffin tins!

And a short 20-25 minutes later...

Yum.

Now... while these were baking, I had a fun idea. Different cereal. Fun cereal. Leftover Halloween cereal!

Yes, I know that Frankenberry is completely against the way I usually food shop... food coloring, fake everything... but after Halloween when the supermaret puts in on sale for 67 cents a box... well, makes it hard to resist. And, so you know, we don't eat it for breakfast. After school snack only. Or... in muffins.

For theses, I used oil instead of banana, and the results were... colorful. And fun.

And absolutely delicious. I will say that both little man and I preferred the Cheerios version, but little miss absolutely loves the Frankenberry variety. Which is just fun.

Grandma Loy, thank you so much for this super fun recipe. I know I'll be making these with just about every cereal that comes into my house from now on.

And to the whole SRC crew - thank you. I can't even begin to tell you what it's meant to me to be a part of this group. You are all amazing bakers, cooks, photographers, bloggers and, most importantly, pepple. And I'm honored that I got to spend so much time being a part of this wonderful group.

An InLinkz Link-up

Cereal Muffins
(only slightly modified from Grandma Loy's Kitchen)

1 1/4 cups milk (I used coconut milk)
1 1/2 cups whole-bran cereal, or 2 cups Cheerios, or 3 cups corn flakes (or any cereal you choose! Choose the measurement listed for the cereal most similar in shape or consistency to the cereal you choose.)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar (if you are using a sugary cereal, you can reduce this)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil (can substitute mashed banana if the flavor goes with the cereal you choose!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-well muffin tim with non-stick cooking spray.
Combine milk and cereal in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
Add beaten egg and vegetable oil (or banana) to the milk and cereal and mix well.
Add dry ingredients.  Mix only until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy).
Fill prepared muffin tin cups almost full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy!

Note: Grandma Loy provided the following yummy ideas for variations. Simply add any of these to batter before adding dry ingredients:
Blueberry - Add 1 cup fresh or unthawed frozen blueberries or 1 cup well-drained canned blueberries.
Apple - Peel and finely dice 1 medium apple (3/4-1 cup).  Toss with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Pineapple - Add 3/4 cup well-drained crushed pineapple.
Bacon - Add 4 slices crisp cooked bacon, crumbled.
Cranberry - Add 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce.