Low Calorie Croutons? Yup. (Recipe Included)

So I've been consuming salad much more than I ever did before deciding to lose weight. Let's face it: If you get a nice big bowl of 2 cups of your average salad mixture that's what? Maybe 40-50 calories depending on what other things are mixed in it. Add in 2-4 tbsp of fat free dressing at 30-60 calories and you can fill up your stomach without doing the same to your calorie counter for the day. I mean hey, 100 calories and I'm satisfied for a couple hours? Deal!

So here's the thing... I love... LOVE croutons on my salads. Always have, always will. I love bread in any form. And cheese... mmmm but I digress... The point is that I've tried even the "fat free" croutons at stores and they're horridly disgusting in taste. Like eating a piece of Styrofoam... that someone sat on for 8 hours... Eww. And what's even worse is most of them are like 25-30 calories per serving (which as some of you may know is a mere 5 "pieces" AKA croutons). Now I prefer like 3x that! But I guess I'd settle for 10 croutons if I had to.

So... the lightbulb? Low calorie breads + oven = low calorie croutons? Well I dunno about that because then there's the butter and other things... But... what about light butter? Surely there's bound to be other options to these narsty storebought "diet croutons" I've been grimacing at for the past few months.

So I made one :P at a "whopping" 4 calories per crouton, I intend to indulge my inner bread-lover on every salad from hence forth. Behold! The recipe! (for those who desire it)

(also this will eventually show up in the recipe database... if they ever finish that feature :P oh and also if someone from MFP reads this, seriously are you in PHP? gimme your server info I'll finish the database for you haha)

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Low Calorie Croutons (7-grain)

INGREDIENTS:
~Pepperidge Farm - Light Style 7 Grain Bread, 10 slice
~Land O' Lakes - Light Butter Salted, (4 Tbsp)
~Seasonings of your choice (they don't add any caloric content worthy of tracking)

For my seasonings, I like to use about 1tsp of garlic, 1/8tsp of salt, 1tsp of fresh ground black peppercorns, and 1tbsp of parsley flakes


INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Melt the butter in your microwave (or a saucepan if you desire) being careful not to overheat it and cause it to start to caramelize. Mix in the seasonings making sure the garlic (or other powdered seasonings) doesn't clump.

Chop up 10 slices of your low calorie bread into 16 even squares (4 cuts each way). This will produce 16 croutons per piece and is important in measuring your serving size/caloric intake from this recipe.

Place the cubes into a large mixing bowl and drizzle HALF of the butter and seasoning mixture over them evenly. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and toss the bread for a minute to coat evenly. Remove cover, and repeat the process with the remaining half of the mixture. This 2-stage process helps to evenly coat the bread and help prevent a section of it from absorbing all the flavoring before you can toss it.

Spread the seasoned bread across a large cookie sheet in a single layer with no overlap.

Bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and turn the bread using a spatula. They don't all need to be completely flipped over, just moved around. The tighter the groupings on your cookie sheet, the more cubes will still be moist. Bake for another 5-10 minutes and turn again. Repeat once more if your cubes are still a little moist. When they come out of the oven crispy but not bone dry (eat one or twelve to check) they're done.

Remove from the oven once they're done and let them cool to room temperature on the cookie sheet before putting them in a resealable container. If you don't let them cool you'll get condensation inside the container and they will spoil more quickly. Once they've cooled to room temperature, I suggest keeping them in the fridge. That's where mine go. They keep longer. If you find that your fridge causes condensation in the container then either you didn't bake them long enough, didn't let them cool long enough, or you have an old fridge :P

Serve 10 croutons for a measly 40 calories and enjoy the crispy, buttery crunch of bread in your salads once again without feeling bad about it.*

* As a point of reference I'd like to say that I've tried the "fat free" croutons from the store that measure 20-30 calories per 5 croutons and they taste like stale nasty bread. These are crispy, flavorful, and 4 calories a piece. Enjoy!


THE DAMAGE (Per Serving of 10 Croutons):
Calories: 40
Carbs: 6g
Fat: 2g
Protein: 1g