Homemade Croutons and Tomato Soup

I had some leftover cornbread and 1/3 loaf of white bread sitting on my counter, normally I just feed this to the chickens.  However, I was craving some crusty croutons.  Here is how I made them:

Dice/cube the bread.

Make a dry season mix.  You can actually put any spices you like.  I chose these - 1/2 tsp. - 1 tsp. each.  

Put bread cubes on lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on the spice mix.  Bake at 250 till toasty.  Stir around every 15 minutes.  I turned oven off and let the croutons sit in the oven till lunch.

Store in a zip lock bag.  

I put these on a salad for lunch one day....

I was hungry for tomato soup and made mine from scratch.  Here is how I made it:

Saute, 1 small chopped onion, 2 cloves diced garlic,  2 diced carrots and the heart of the celery chopped in 2 T butter.  

Once veggies are soft, add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of flour.  Stir up all the "crud" on the bottom and mix with flour.  Add 1 quart of tomatoes and 1 C water (could use veggie or chicken stock).  S & P to taste.

Let come to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Run your hand blender through all of it and that is it.  

I added the croutons to the top of the soup along with a drizzle of olive oil.  

Really good - if I do say so myself!

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.