Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Croutons (Using up leftover bread)

 We just returned home from vacation (I'll post on that later). It was a wonderful time with my hubby and girls and then throughout the second week several friends came to join us.

 My friend Kelly made an amazing Overnight Caramel French Toast 
and she cut up Pineapple and Mango to go on top or on the side if we wanted. She also made these yummy Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sammy's . But this post isn't about those, though Oh My Word they were amazing, this is about the French Toast. It was amazing! Go make it.

After she was done making it she had half a loaf of day old (or by this time two or three day old bread) left. She left it with me and I stuck it in the freezer. I have never made homemade croutons (I know, I know, weird), but my sister had and that gave me the idea to use the somewhat hardened french to make some. I looked around on the internet to see what the best method was and came up with these yummy gems. The day I made them I was also making Lentil soup for dinner so I decided that people could either use the croutons to top their salad or their soup (I thought both would be good).

 What you need: Any leftover bread, EVOO, variety of seasonings. I used: garlic powder, onion powder, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

 I cut the loaf into thick slices and then cubed them. They were a bit larger but that was okay.

 Placing the cubes in a large bowl I drizzled them with olive oil (not soaking them, but just lightly coating most of them). I then sprinkled some salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and italian seasoning on them. Mix them gently by hand.

 I pre-heated my oven to 350. I laid a piece of tinfoil in the bottom of a baking pan (they didn't have cookie sheets at the house), sprayed well with cooking spray and dumped the bowl of croutons onto the pan. I evened them out and then drizzled a bit more EVOO and seasonings on them (a few got left out while in the bowl). I baked for about 20-25 minutes until browned and crunchy.
Oh YUMMY! they were amazing. The bread I used was a softer French Bread and alot of recipes called for a more crustier artisan type bread, but these were great. What an awesome use for leftover bread.  

I'm linking this to Tasty Tuesday. 
With Joy UNquenchable,