Homemade Croutons and Bagel Chips!

So yesterday I noticed that I have 3 stale bagels and a loaf of bread that has gone stale. I knew the bread would be stale because I bought two loaves of Walmart’s “Home baked “White bread and it was gross! Why did I buy two loaves? Because our family would have ate two loaves of bread had it been edible, and because yes (if have not figured out yet) I am just as cheap as the $.89 bread was! You have to admit $.89 for a loaf of bread is a pretty sweet deal, but sigh I guess it is true; you do get what you pay for!

So here I have a loaf of cheap bread and three stale bagels what to do, what to do…. Ha! I know croutons and bagel chips! This is really easy to do anyone can do it.

There is some discussion about when to season and when to not but this is how I did it. It is so easy and now I made my own deal on Croutons! Because a bag of croutons typically costs about $1.29 and I got about 3 bags of croutons from the loaf of bread. That is about $.30 per bag! Nice.


"Recipe"; maybe recipe is too technical of a word for this. Let’s just say this is how I did it! Really it is too easy to call it a "recipe".

I used:
Large bowl and spatula
Cookie sheets and a pizza pan (hey I was running out of pans!)
Bread knife & cutting board
Olive oil (can also use any cooking oil)

The following seasonings; (can be any spices you choose):
Season Salt
Lemon Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Italian seasoning

I used some sesame seeds that I had laying around for the bagel chips but not the croutons.)
Like I said you can use any seasoning you like.

Pre heat oven to 260 and cut up your bread into cubes. Cut the bagels in half from the top down (not the middle like you were going to toast it). Then cut the bagel into little slices.


In the large bowl put about 2/3 cup oil and your spices and mix well. You want about a tablespoon of each spice.

Add croutons or bagel chips and mix until all are coated.

Place on cookie or baking sheets and bake for about 10 min.

Take out of oven and use a spatula to turn and stir ideally all of them over

Bake again for about another 10 min or until crisp.
Because you are balking at a low heat they should not burn just get crisp.

Take out of oven and let cool. Try to keep everyone from eating them!

Once cooled store in air tight container and the experts say they will keep for one week.

Hope you enjoy these as much as my family does. This is a great way to save your money. You don’t have to toss out stale bread and you get more tasty croutons when you make them yourself!