Guest post from Carissa of Pretty/Hungry
I recently came to a point where the budgeter in me just couldn’t bear to throw away any more cereal crumbs! Week after week, I’d find myself at the bottom of another box of cereal with a good two inches of dust left over, and it bothered me to just toss all that in the garbage can.
Now I realize that in the grand scheme of things, throwing away a few cereal crumbs is FAR from earth-shattering. But I just knew there must be some way to make good use of all that crunchy whole-grain goodness rather than just tossing it.
So I started saving our cereal remnants in a ziptop bag and trying to think of ways to use them. Turns out, they are good for a whole lot!
Some of our favorite uses for “cereal dust” are:
- Mixing into our morning oatmeal for a little added crunch
- Substituting it for oats and other grains in homemade granola bars
- And my new favorite use for it… as a healthy add-in for homemade muffins!
This week I added a cup or so of “cereal dust” to a basic muffin recipe, along with a swirl of cinnamon maple syrup, and the result was one very cozy, super-moist, and delicious muffin!
And not only were these muffins irresistibly tasty, but the aroma of them baking filled our home on this blustery Fall day… it was lovely!
Cinnamon Maple “Cereal Crumb” Muffins
Makes: 1 dozen muffins
BATTER INGREDIENTS:
- 1 1/2 cup leftover cereal crumbs (any non-fruity variety)
- 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon butter (melted)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 Tablespoon maple syrup
MAPLE CINNAMON SWIRL INGREDIENTS:
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375*F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake papers.
In a medium bowl, pour buttermilk over cereal crumbs and allow them to soak while gathering your other ingredients.
In a small separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Reserve two tablespoons of dry mixture in a separate small bowl.
Into the bowl of cereal crumbs and buttermilk, add the melted butter, vegetable oil, beaten egg, vanilla, and 2 Tablespoons maple syrup, whisking with a fork to combine. Add the dry mixture (all but the 2 reserved spoonfuls) to the wet mixture, stirring with a fork until just combined.
Use a large scoop to transfer equal amounts of batter each muffin cup — filling each cup about 2/3 full.
To the small bowl of reserved dry ingredients, add the remaining 1/4 C. maple syrup, maple extract, and cinnamon. Drizzle a heaping teaspoon of the syrup mixture over each cup of batter, “swirling” with a toothpick if desired.
Bake at 375*F for 16 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Do you have any other creative ways to use up leftover cereal crumbs?
Carissa is a wife and mother of a sweet 1-year old girl. She loves the Lord, her family, and cooking! In recent years her family has made drastic cuts to their budget in order to start saving to build a home. Carissa blogs at Pretty/Hungry about all her kitchen creations!
I have an excessive amount of cereal crumbs as my daughter has cereal for lunch every day, so I started making no bake treats for myself and my dog. I use 1 cup cereal crumbs, 1 cup oats, a small handful of almonds (or a mixture of nuts) about 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil and a tablespoon of honey and blitz in a food processor (I also may add a little warm water) until the mixture comes together. Spread out to desired thickness, cut into squares and refrigerate. My dog loves them!
Muffins are a good idea. I incorporate any left-over cereal we have (mostly shredded wheat) into my oatmeal cookies. I call them dump cookies. I dump in left-over cereal, dried cranberries and nuts. Makes deliciously healthy cookies!!
My grandpa always says, “The last bite costs as much as the first!” Cereal can be expensive, it’s awesome that you found a way to use those “last bites”.
I have also used the crumbs as a coating for chicken fingers or oven baked chicken, providing they are flavor appropriate.
What a creative idea for crumbs!
Ha ha, I actually have a friend who LOVES the bottom of the bag and is so happy her husband leaves the crumbs for her. I had never heard of anyone actually liking the crumbs. Love these ideas!
I like to use ours up with yogurt! Makes that morning yogurt and fruit a little fancier, parfait style!
I can’t believe I have never thought to save those cereal crumbs! I try to save every scrap of everything else and this had just never occurred to me. I’ll be saving them from now on…we go through a ton of cereal. 🙂
Last Christmas I was making candy using melted chocolate bark, and decided to mix some of my saved up leftover pieces and bits of cereal into some melted chocolate bark for crunchy candy. Everything tastes better with chocolate! Less expensive than chopped nuts, and tasty!
Oh yes! Melted candy bark with corn flakes is a family favorite. I like to add crushed peppermint candy around the holidays, but it’s good without that too. Just mix it up, drop it by the spoonful onto wax paper, and let it cool. Yummy!
I use crunchy cereal crumbs when I make the topping for apple crisp or anything else that you might use nuts with.
Wow!! I love this idea so much! Makes me think of Amy Dacyzyn’s bread crumb cookies, or the time I used corn tortilla chip crumbs in meat loaf. Thanks for sharing!
I love to keep these around for making “graham cracker” crusts for pies, cheesecakes, bars, etc. Healthier than regular graham crackers too!
Wow another great idea! We are GF in this house and I was trying to think of another option for a cheese cake crust. We eat a LOT of Chex..will have to save the crumbs!
Such a fun idea! I can’t stand eating those crumbs with my regular cereal!
Carissa, you are inspiring! Of course, in the grand scheme of things it is very little. But all those little things add up don’t they? I just realized this week I should be saving those cruddy ends on my bread to make homemade stuffing next week with our turkey. It will probably save me $1.50 or so but, it tastes good and makes me feel good. You go girl!
Shannon,
you can also use the ends of breads for coutons. another way I use mine is I save them in the freezer and when I make my French toast bake (which calls for French bread) I use my ends instead and by saving them I’ve been able to make at least 4 French toast bakes in the last several months and no one notices that it’s not French bread.
Can I use milk instead do buttermilk?
Sure, Cristiane! But buttermilk is easy to make at home, just add a little quirt of lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk.
Another use is to put it on top of plain yogurt. I have done this a lot.