Croutons to Die For, by Patrice Lewis

https://survivalblog.com/2025/07/18/croutons-to-die-for-by-patrice-lewis/

Editor’s Introductory Note: This article was written by friend of the Blog Patrice Lewis. She is the Editrix of the long-running Rural Revolution blog. She and her husband Don have truly lived the prepping/homesteading life for decades. They homeschooled their two daughters, gardened, raised cattle and poultry, preserved foods, ran a home-based business, and much more. Lily and I first met them 15 years ago, when they lived on a ranch about 40 miles southeast of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. More recently, they moved to another ranch in an undisclosed location, elsewhere in Idaho. That ranch is more remote, and in an ideal climate zone for self-sufficiency. There, they are applying all of the lessons learned from their previous rural homes to become even more self-sufficient. As tireless homesteaders, their new place is quickly becoming disaster-ready. I’m confident that in another decade it will also be retirement-ready. Patrice really knows how to plan ahead! I highly recommend bookmarking her blog. – JWR

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Up until this point, we (the Lewis household) have been fairly lazy when it came to croutons. Normally, I buy them bulk from Winco on my once- or twice-a-year excursions into the city to stock up on bulk items from the big box stores. Well, stocking up on bulk items is pricey, and since February’s job loss, we just don’t want to spend the money.

But we were out of croutons, so Don took it upon himself to make some. They’re easy-peasey to make, so I don’t know why it never occurred to us to do this earlier. Go figure.

Anyway, when he’s ready to make a batch, Don asks me to make a loaf of French bread (which I do with the bread machine).

He lets the loaf sit for a couple of days to “harden up,” then cuts it into roughly one-inch cubes.

These are his ingredients: Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.

He mixes everything together…

…and adds it to the bread cubes.

Adding the oil mixture to the bread cubes is a patient process. He drizzles a little over the top, then tosses the cubes to bring up the bottom cubes. Drizzle, toss. Drizzle, toss. Rotate the bowl. Drizzle, toss. He goes through this process about six times until the mixture is used up.

Then he spreads the bread cubes on cookie sheets…

…and bakes them at 375°F for 13 to 15 minutes (or until slightly browned).

He lets the croutons cool completely, then bags and freezes them.

One loaf makes about 1.75 lbs. of croutons.

In theory – in theory, mind you – croutons are for salads and other savory dishes. In reality, however, these have become our New Favorite Snack. Seriously, we’ll decant a small bowlful from the freezer bag and crunch on them by themselves. They are ridiculously delicious.

Speaking of crunching, Don crunched the numbers and compared homemade croutons with store-bought ones, keeping in mind we buy all ingredients in bulk. The homemade ones are about half the cost of bulk store-bought croutons – and twice as good.

Here’s the recipe he uses. Since one loaf of our homemade bread makes about 12 cups of cubes, he quadruples the recipe. (He also doubles the amount of garlic, ‘cuz we love garlic.)

I don’t know why it took us so long to make our own, but there you go. Seriously, we’re never going back to store-bought croutons ever again.

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James Wesley Rawles

James Wesley, Rawles (JWR) is Founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog, the original prepping /survival blog for when the Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF). He began SurvivalBlog in 2005. It now reaches more than 320,000 unique visitors weekly.
JWR is a journalist, technical writer, and novelist. His survivalist novel Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse, is a modern classic that reached #3 on the New York Times bestsellers list. Two of his other novels have also been best New York Times bestsellers.
Jim is the originator of the American Redoubt movement and a frequent talk show and podcast guest. He is also a retreat consultant specializing in off-grid living, rural relocation, and survival preparedness.

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