With this kick of trying (and failing) to eat out less and at home more, I wanted to spend the weekend making a few things at home, rather than spending the money on needless extras–Things like granola bars or croutons.

Yes, croutons. I’m one of those people that stops eating a salad the minute the croutons are gone. It’s not so much that I need the little cubes of bread or anything, but I like the additional “crunch.” There is nothing worse than a salad full of slimy, soggy greens. Say what you will about poor, virtually-devoid-of-nutrition Iceberg lettuce, but it’s my favorite green, because it’s so crisp and crunchy. And I like a lot of croutons with it. So I made some Easy Homemade Croutons.

I like homemade croutons because you can customize them however you’d like. Whatever kind of bread you want/have on hand, whatever seasonings you like, heck, you can even control the shape!

I prefer to tear my bread, just because you get more crunchy ends when you toast them. I like to keep things fairly simple and use olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

Occasionally I’ll toss the bread with half olive oil and half melted butter, but I didn’t do that this time around.

Easy Homemade Croutons

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Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 to 1 loaf of bread, any type, torn into bite-sized pieces (approx. 3-4 C)
• 1/4 C olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the torn bread in a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over top, and toss gently with a spatula or spoon. Season with the garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and toss again, making sure most of the bread pieces are coated.

Place the bread on a baking sheet, making sure the pieces are in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, toss the croutons, and bake for 10-15 minutes more, until crisp and golden. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

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