Gluten Free Croutons

I've been away for far too long. Life has been pretty busy and hectic but it's time to try to start posting again and bringing back my love of food. I can't guarantee I'll update as much as I'd like, but I will do my best to record my journey with food as I go about my day to day life.

In the time I've been away, I've been busier with work and have also been diagnosed with Celiac's Disease. This means I have had to go gluten free. I'm still adjusting and learning and, well, it has been a bit frustrating most of the time. I'm still finding my way and have been obsessing and learning and freaking out and stressing and dealing - sometimes all at the same time! But I feel like I may finally be settling into this new life so I hope to be able to continue this blog but add in these new adventures in food. My main focus of this blog will still be to celebrate all foods, but I'll throw some specifically gluten free things in every now and then.

Along this new journey, I've had to reinvent some foods that I haven't been able to easily find or, to be honest, just taste awful. A lot of the meals and creations I have previously made are already naturally gluten free, but some things require a little creativity. And, in certain cases, some store-bought items...

One of the foods I've been missing is croutons. So when you can't find them, you just make them, right?

They're much easier to make than you would think and don't take much time. These were made to go as an accompaniment to my pizza soup but they can be used on anything! My son was just snacking on them while I was preparing the rest of our dinner. He even said they were the best croutons he's ever had. My non-gluten free guys really liked these so I'll probably be keeping these around for awhile.

Gluten Free Croutons Multiple Servings Ingredients • 1 Schar baguette (I haven't tried other brands) • 2 tb olive oil • 1/4 tsp onion powder • 1/4 tsp garlic powder • 1/4 tsp seasoned salt • 1/4 tsp paprika • 1/2 tsp dried basil • 1/2 tsp dried oregano • 1 tsp dried parsley • 1/4 tsp ground pepper • 1/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) • 1 1/2 tb unsalted butter Directions Preheat oven to 325°. Cut baguette into 1/2" cubes. Place remaining ingredients, except butter, in zip top bag and mix together well. Add bread to bag and zip closed, leaving air in the bag. Shake the bag to coat all the cubes (the air in the bag helps make even coating). Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with non-stick spray. Spread the cubes in a single layer and bake for 10 minutes. Melt butter in a small bowl. Remove baking sheet from oven and drizzle bread cubes with butter. Toss well to coat. Place back in oven and cook for another 5 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. *The spices/herbs can easily be replaced if you don't like some or want to try different kinds. Just make sure all of them are gluten free!