Long time ago, when my husband had an averse palette for salad as a full meal, I started using croutons as a tempting factor. Eventually, he fell in love with salad and I reduced the use of croutons. Why to increase calorie count when you eat salad for health reasons? Although salads are fine, but we still prefer to have croutons in soups. Normally, I buy ready packet from store but I hate to use them for once and remaining of them getting stale.
So I thought why not to try at home from leftover bread. I buy fresh loaf quite often. How much I love the freshness of it, it hurts to see half of it going to trash after just one use. Since we have a rule that we would eat processed food made out of plain flour only once a week and we mostly stick to it; I cannot use it again in meal. So this time I made croutons out of leftover loaf. Not only they are cheap but also way more fresh and tasty than those from the packet. You can make them in almost no time and store them in air tight container for about a month. And more importantly, this turned out to be my little one's favorite snack :).
Preparation Time: 5 Minute
Cooking Time: 30 Minute
Ingredients
Leftover bread
Olive oil
Parsley
Red pepper flakes
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper
Procedure
1. Cut bread in cubes. Cut off the crusts if using regular sandwich bread
2. In a large bowl, mix olive oil, spices and herbs
3. Toss in bread cubes and coat them well
4. Arrange cubes in a baking sheet in single layer and toast at 300 F for 10-15 minute or until they become light brown and crispy
5. Store in air tight container once cool down
