Making the most of crumbs

I am amazed that people buy bread crumbs and at a pretty high price also when you consider it's the leftovers from the bakery slicing the bread they bake. I, too, used to fall into this trap.

How many people like to eat the heels of the bread? I know my father does when it's freshly baked, and sometimes my husband, but other than that I am not sure if anyone else does. We also have a bunch that don't like to eat the crusts of their bread either. Then there's always that one piece of stale bread that gets forgotten about. That's a lot of waste that accumulates. My mind thinks of those in this world that face starvation and how they would love to have even the crust of our bread. Since I can't send that to them (we help other ways), I store all of the crusts I remember about before serving the bread, and all of the heels in a freezer bag and freeze them to make bread crumbs.

Once I have the amount of bread that I want to use for bread crumbs, I tear up the bread and place it in my food processor. I blend them until they are at the consistency I like for my crumbs. Then they are spread out on cookie sheets and placed in a low temperature oven (around 220 degrees) and toasted until they are dry. After that they are placed in an airtight container until I need them.

This is a great way to save money, food, and be in control of what goes in your meals.

Enjoy your day!