Quick Recipes: Garlic Bread and Croutons

One of the staples on our monthly menu is Chicken Caesar Salad. I marinate chicken breasts and either indoor or outdoor grill them, slice into strips and serve over a bed of torn romaine hearts tossed with Ken's Steakhouse Light Caesar Dressing and grated Parmesan. My husband loves croutons, so there is usually a bag of low-fat or fat free ones in the house for him because I don't usually use them on my salad and I also try to minimize carbs where I can.

However, once in a while I make my own croutons. Especially when there is bread in the house like this:

When this is in the house, I make my own croutons,  I eat them and I enjoy them!

The recipe is simple and I got the basic instructions from The Great American Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. They emphasize the key to good croutons is using regular olive oil, cutting the bread into uniform pieces and being sure to season them well. But first, we start with leftover bread!

The bread we purchased from Baker's Crust was used to make garlic bread to go with the pasta and meat sauce I made. The roasted garlic bread that Baker's Crust makes has whole cloves of garlic inside. To make it into bread for dinner, first I sliced the bread almost all the way through, leaving the bottom intact so the loaf would stay together. I sauteed three minced pieces in olive oil for 1 minute and then melted in 1/2 a stick of butter blend. I added 1/2 tablespoon of Italian seasoning and then poured over the cut loaf. I covered it in foil and baked in a 400 oven for 15 minutes. 

Now to the leftovers, we had about a half loaf left that I kept refrigerated since it had been buttered. The bread was already seasoned and garlic so I simply tossed it in a bowl with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Put in a 350 oven for 20 minutes until the bread is golden brown:

Making your own croutons is dangerous though....you never want to eat bagged ones again!http://www.bakerscrust.com/