Homemade Croutons

After several failures in the kitchen a few weeks ago, I was determined to get my groove back. I was also determined to eat a little better after several meals of takeout or frozen foods. Last night I made pork chops marinated in soy sauce, kecap manis (a sweet Indonesian soy sauce), and garlic. For my side, I had sweet potatoes that I roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper. And because I've been needing more vegetables, I made a simple salad.

I've had croutons on my shopping list for a long time. Well, it's been on the shopping list in my head for several weeks, but I just kept forgetting to write it down. So after another shopping trip and after forgetting to buy them once again, I decided to try to make my own. I've seen people do it on cooking shows on TV and it looks so simple so I thought why not. Most of the "recipes" I've seen call for day-old french bread, which I didn't have. Instead, all I had was regular white bread. The bread is called "Premium Italian" from Oroweat and I'm not sure what makes it Italian. The only major differences is that the slices are a bit thicker than regular sandwich bread. Either way all you need is some kind of thick-sliced white bread.

Ingredients:
White bread, diced in cubes
Butter
Seasonings of your choice

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a pan on low or medium-low heat.
2. When the butter is melted, add the bread and toss until the bread is coated with butter.
3. Sprinkle seasonings over the butter and toss to coat.
4. Cook, tossing occasionally, until bread is toasted on the outside

For my croutons, I simply used garlic powder and parsley, but you can add any seasonings you want. You could probably add a little bit of salt, pepper, oregano, and/or thyme. You can even add some grated Parmesan cheese. These croutons turned out great. They were flavorful and had the perfect texture. Sometimes the problem with boxed croutons from the store is that they are so hard, I'm often afraid that I might break a tooth while eating them. These homemade croutons were perfectly crunchy. Now that I know how simple it is to make my own, I doubt I'll ever buy a box again!