Sourdough Croutons

I have a fat story for you. Back when Aaliyah's "Are you that somebody?" was the biggest hit (which, for your information, was in June of 1998), I was a husky 11-year-old who loved watching VH1 videos during the summer. Normally, my time was occupied painting the school I attended or taking swim lessons (which I took up until I was a freshman in high school. Yes, I can swim amazingly well. Yes, I am slightly humiliated to admit that). This summer, however, was an exception. I'm not sure why I was home so much. But I do know that I began a love affair with chocolate milk and croutons topped with ranch. Together. As a snack. 

Are we surprised?

Anyway, my parents didn't keep a ton of chips in the house, and we hardly ever had soda. I had to improvise. And to this day, I just love croutons. My problem came about when Tim started his new healthy lifestyle. It's very hard to find whole wheat croutons, and when you do, they're ridiculously overpriced. However, sourdough was always permitted, and sourdough croutons are also fairly uncommon.

I don't think I can emphasize how easy these things are to make from home. It's definitely not glamorous or exciting to make, but make 'em once and you're done for the week. You can have salad every night with crispy sourdough croutons.

Ingredients:

4 pieces sourdough bread

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

Garlic salt (how much is up to your discretion)

Parsley flakes

Directions:

Remove crust from bread (although some people prefer it with the crust).

Cut up into small pieces.

Combined melted butter, olive oil, garlic salt and parsley.

Place bread in large mixing bowl.

Cover with mixture and combine so that all bread is thoroughly covered. It's not supposed to be drenched, just lightly coated.

Place evenly on baking sheet.

Bake at 375 until golden brown and crunch. This took mine about 30 minutes, but every oven is different-keep an eye on them.

These go great on top of both salads and soups (as a substitute for crackers). They're also great eaten all by themselves, dipped in ranch, with a glass of chocolate milk. You've gotta' try it once.

Love and crunch memories,

Spinach Cobb Salad

Tim bores easily when it comes to his bagged lunches.

"I'm over peanut butter. Can I have turkey sandwiches?"

"I'm over turkey sandwiches. Can I have...well, what can I have?"

This happens twice a week. The burden, it's heavy.

I know this is simple, and I know it's not a new idea. It is, I've found, a big...fat...SUCCESS. Just without the fat. It's more of a lean, protein-filled success. One that looks really good in a bathing suit and makes all the other lunches feel bad about themselves.

So here's how it goes:

• Grab some fresh spinach leaves. I usually bag half of the container and use the container it comes in as sort of a lunch box. Because I'm trying to save the earth from plastic. And because the light bulb in Tim's man cave is broken, and I'm scared to go digging for his actual lunch box.
• Bag all your desired toppings. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. That's the media's job. I'm just going to make some highly-recommended suggestions. The following toppings go great on salad:
• Shredded cheese
• Croutons
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Shredded carrots
• Cabbage
• Broccoli, which I consider to be the spinach's crazy ex who can't take a hint and get lost.
• Black olives
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Seeds
• Feta cheese
• Bacon

Like I said, these are merely suggestions. But why would you pay up to $10 for a salad bar when you can bring it yourself? You know where the ingredients are coming from. You probably need to get rid of half this stuff before it expires, anyway. And it leaves more room for spinach's mistress later in the evening: dessert.

So tell me...did I miss any of your favorite toppings? What do you have to have on your salad?

Love and spinach,