Healthy and Yummy Bran Muffins

Don't know what to feed your kids before you send them out the door?  Are they constantly begging you for food?  It seems like when I feed my kids cold cereal it goes right through them.  I hate for them to be hungry at school, so I started experimenting with muffins.  My kids love them, but they aren't necessarily healthy.  I thought if I could come up with a bran muffin with lots of fiber and not so much sugar, they might be filling, healthy, AND tasty.  Not all of my experiments work out, but these certainly did!  The best part...only abut 100 calories per muffin.  Eat up!

Healthy and Yummy Bran Muffins (makes 24 muffins)

3 cups wheat bran flake cereal
2 cups vanilla soy milk
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbsp ground flax
6 Tbsp water
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp wheat gluten, optional
1 cup fruit (fresh, frozen, or dehydrated), optional

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.  Grease muffin cups or use paper liners.  In a large bowl, mix cereal and milk and let stand for 10 minutes.
2.  In a small bowl mix together flax and 6 Tbsp of water.  Let sit while cereal and milk sit.
3.  Add flax mixture to cereal mixture.  Add all other ingredients, except fruit to the cereal mixture.  Stir until just blended.  Fold in fruit.  Batter is not very thick.  Scoop into muffin cups.
4.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until tops spring back when tapped lightly.

**Sometimes we use Raisin Bran and don't add any extra fruit.  If you do this, just let the raisins soak with the cereal in the soy milk.

**If you want them to be less sweet, use 3/4 cup brown sugar.  If you want them to be more sweet, use 1 cup brown sugar.  It is really up to what your family prefers.

** As written these are vegan muffins (meaning no animal products whatsoever).  If you don't want to do this, use the following substitutions:

--2 eggs to replace 2 Tbsp flax and 6 Tbsp water
--1 cup oil to replace 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (we have never done this so I don't know if it will make them oily or not.  Let me know.)
--2 cups regular milk and 1 tsp vanilla to replace the 2 cups vanilla soymilk.