Homemade Croutons

For one of my New Year's Resolutions, I vowed to eat smarter and spend smarter this year.  As a result, I've been trying to eat more salads to keep trim but be more resourceful with toppings, which leads me to make yummy homemade croutons!!!  These are great because the ingredients are easy to find but also easily substitutable with others if you don't have them.

Here's an easy, step-by-step recipe:

What you'll need:

• Plain sandwich bread (I use 2 slices.)
• PAM (or any light oil, preferably one that can be sprayed)
• Garlic powder
• A toaster oven
• Foil
• Toaster pan/tray

Steps:

1. Cover the pan with foil to avoid messy situations later.  Makes for a quick clean up!

2.  Break down the bread in however large pieces you want and put the pieces on the foil-covered pan.  You can even leave the bread whole to have garlic bread!





3.  Use the Pam and lightly spray all the pieces.  This will give the bread some crisp later.

4.  Sprinkle the garlic powder on the bread.  What's great about making your own croutons is that you can control how much oil and garlic you want on them!

5.  Pop the pan in the toaster oven to toast until they are brown. (Approximately 3 minutes.)

6.  Turn all the pieces over.

7. Repeat steps 2 and 3: spray with Pam and sprinkle with garlic.

8.  Put the pan back in the toaster to toast, but because the oven is already hot, make sure that you put it in for a shorter time than before, just until they start browning.  (Approximately 1.5 minutes.)


9.  VOILA! :)  Croutons.