Croutons

From time to time, free bread finds its way into my hands. Mostly its donated bakery bread that comes via the Harvest (a Reba-related co-op grocery in Evanston). It's not sliced, whole wheat loaves you might make a sandwich with, but mostly white artisan loaves.  Often pieces of this bread stay around a little too long, and crusty ends aren't great for many things. 

However, when it comes to croutons, "hard" and "crusty" are good things. 

Here I used a mixture of sliced white bread, crusty artisan ends, and hamburger buns.  I sliced them into cubes, sprayed with canola oil, and sprinkled garlic salt and Italian seasoning on top. Then I baked them at 400 till they were dry. Voila--free, homemade croutons that eliminate food waste! Keep 'em in a ziploc.