Wasteless Wednesday: Bread

For all of my new readers, every Wednesday I pick one common household item and show you how you can reuse it in order to waste less. Feel free to send me an email or post a comment for ideas for this weekly feature.

Today, we are going to talk about bread. First of all, I buy most of my bread from the bread outlet and then freeze it. I know I will always have bread and buns available by doing this. Sometimes I have problems using up the thawed bread before it starts to get stale though. Here are my favorite ways to use up stale bread:

Bread Crumbs - Put bread on a cookie sheet and bake at a low temperature until crusty, make sure not to burn it though. Once cooked, crumble up or put in a food processor to make finer crumbs. These can be stored for weeks and make a great coating for chicken or potatoes. You can make your own version of Shake n Bake by mixing various spices with the bread crumbs.

Croutons - Cube the bread and toast in the oven similar to bread crumbs. Feel free to season them before or after. My favorite is to rub garlic on them.

French Toast - This is best made with stale bread so that it will soak up all of the egg mixture. This is our favorite Saturday morning treat and it is very cheap to make.

Feed the animals - If you have a lake or zoo nearby, this is a fun treat for kids to feed the ducks.

Feel free to add your favorite way to use up stale bread.