Croutons are a big part of any good salad, but I tend to shy away from commercial ones for a couple of reasons. First, they are expensive and secondly they can be teeth breaking-ly hard (is that a  real word").

This is a very simple crouton recipe that has a wonderful flavor and is a good use of that day old French bread in your kitchen. After the cubes are baked, just store them in an airtight container and they will stay crunchy for 2-3 days or you can put them in the freezer for longer storage.

Start off with a half a loaf of day old french bread. The amount of bread isn't really critical...just use what you have.

Mix:
4 tablespoons olive oil (see note below)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I use the cheap kind w/ green cap) 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt (more if you like a stronger flavor)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dry parsley flakes (not necessary, but pretty)

Cube the bread (or tear it up) into 3/4" pieces and spread them out on a cookie sheet.

Combine the olive oil, Parmesan, garlic salt and pepper (save parsley flakes for later in the recipe)and mix well. Dot the cheese mixture all over the bread cubes and toss very gently to distribute.

Spread seasoned bread cubes out on a cookie sheet so they aren't touching each other and bake in pre-heated 400° oven for 5 minutes.  Toss again gently and bake for another 5 minutes. Depending on how crunchy you like your croutons, you can put them in for a final 5 minutes if you want more color o...