Raisin Bran Muffins

A pet peeve of mine is the end of the cereal bag where the cereal is all crushed.  Raisin Bran is one of the worst.  So to help it not go to waste, I keep the extra crushed cereal in a ziploc bag to use when I want to make these muffins.  My girls actually like these best without raisins.  Sometimes I put in some dried craisins with the bran cereal instead.

muffins:
1 cup non-fat milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups Raisin Bran cereal
1 cup all-purpose flour (or half whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

optional topping: 
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 T butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 400F*.  Grease or line 12 muffin cups.  Combine milk, oil and egg in a bowl.  Stir in cereal and let stand 10-15 minutes.  Stir to break up cereal.   Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon in seperate bowl.  Add to cereal mixture, stirring until just moistened.  Divide evenly among muffin pan.  Bake for 10 minutes for mini muffins,  20* minutes for regular muffins or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool on a cooling rack for a couple of minutes.  Then remove from pan.  If desired make topping (we usually skip this part and still love them).  Combine cinnamon and sugar.  Brush muffins with butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.  Best served warm.  Makes 12 muffins or 2 dozen mini muffins.

*Note for my dark non-stick pans I heat the oven to 375-385 and bake for 9-10 minutes for mini muffins, 16-18 minutes for standard muffins.