The Paper Piñata: Valentine's Day Croutons

I'm sort of excited about this post, and as you will see... I kind of went picture crazy. Let me start off by saying, I am terrible in the kitchen! I made 2 batches of these croutons. The first came out delicious... the second came out well... decent.

It's hard to say because I kinda burned them. You're seeing the finished product of mostly the first batch.

The good news though? These came boyfriend approved!! He doesn't even really like croutons, so I was pleasantly surprised.

This idea came to me immediately after I made the cut out sandwiches in my last post. The cut outs were so cute, I didn't want to throw them away.

Then, the light bulb came on! Yessssss!

Ok, I'll try to keep this short. Here is what you'll need:

Bread, garlic, butter, heart cutter, bowl, and spoon. Paprika and parmesan cheese (not pictured) are optional.

Leave out 2-3 slices of bread for a few hours, until it starts to get slightly stale. Then, cut out your hearts. Try to use as much a the bread slice as possible. I used one of the piecesin this Wilton kit.

I totally winged this. I didn't have a recipe. If you're better in the kitchen, feel free to adjust the ingredients as you see fit.

I'm no expert, but here are the approx. measurements I used:

3/4 cup of bread

2 slices of Pepperidge Farm Bread yielded about 3/4 cup, which I think is enough for 2 side salads.

About 1/2 Tablespoon of Butter

In a bowl, melt it for about 15 seconds in the microwave,

and mix in about 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder (you can adjust this to your taste!)

Mix it all together, until bread is equally coated with garlic butter mixture.

This is totally optional. I sprinkled a tiny bit of paprika in there to add some color. You can't taste it. You could add parsley flakes too.

Spread them out on your cookie sheet, and if you'd like, sprinkle them with fresh parmesan cheese (optional). Bake at 300 degrees for about 13-15 mins, flipping them half way through.

Watch them carefully, so they don't burn.... trust me! FYI, I used my toaster oven. Not sure if that makes a difference. Like I said, I'm a kitchen dummy.