Leftover Cereal Flour

We love Mini-Wheats. I grew up eating cold cereal for breakfast, and I still do to this day; it's a habit. I have a stack of them, and anytime it goes on sale my stack gets bigger. (I am currently playing with making my own oatmeal to cut down on this cost)

But with Mini-Wheats (and with other brands of cereal), there is always huge amounts of crumbs left over. Up to a quarter cup with these things!!

So, I got to thinking. If I save the leftover cereal crumbs, what could I use it for? Substitute flour! (with some sugar and maple flavoring). So I store the crumbs in a peanut butter jar. It is full in less than 2 weeks.

I have substituted the cereal crumbs for flour in two recipes so far and it works. I spin it through the food processor if I desire (although I have skipped this step with no ill effect) and substitute it for flour in a recipe that is sweet. I have so far put it in my granola bars recipe and they are as yummy as ever. And I have done it in banana bread. It did make the banana bread darker than the normal banana bread usually is, but my hubby gobbled that stuff down faster than I have ever seen him eat banana bread.

You could do half flour and half cereal flour, but so far, I have substituted 100% of the flour with leftover cereal flour in these two treats with no ill effect except for the bread looked dark. I am sure it will work in others. I will update this when I test it in other things.