Croutons: a "recipe"

Three things happened.

One. Bubby kept saying we should make croutons (and by we, he meant me).
Two. We ran out of croutons.
Three. No one ever wants to eat the heels of the bread, which means they leave the heels in the bread bag.  Forever.  Until I deal with them.  And by deal with them, I mean throw them away.

So I made croutons out of the bread heels, and now I will never have to feel guilty about throwing them away again.

If you also don't want to have to feel guilty about throwing away bread, whether it's the heels, stale French bread that your fantasy self urged you to buy, or that lone leftover hot dog bun, read on.

Croutons

To print this recipe, click here.

Ingredients

• Bread, cut into cubes 
• Olive oil 
• Spices and/or seasonings (I used Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (the parchment paper really isn't necessary, but it sounds fancy, right?)
2. Place cubed bread (I used 5 bread heels, that weighed 4.5 ounces) in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil (I used about 1.5 T).  Add seasonings (I used 1 t Italian seasoning, 1/2 t garlic powder, 1/4 t salt, and 1/8 t pepper).  Toss to coat.
3. Pour bread mixture onto prepared pan in a single layer.
4. Bake, flipping once (honestly, have you ever tried to flip a bunch of little things on a baking sheet?  How to you keep track of which ones have been flipped?  Just give it a good stir.  It'll be fine), until crispy--the amount of time will depend on the size of your cubes (mine took about 12 minutes).
5. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.