Amazing Practical Uses for Day-Old Bread - Tips on Stretching the Food Budget just a little bit further

We love to eat fresh, delicious french bread from the bakery each morning, so day old bread can be a sorry substitute. However, these options give to life to the old loaf, because there are many uses!

Usually, when the day old bread starts to stack up a bit, it's time to bake biscotti. It's easy. All you need is a knife, a cutting board and a cookie sheet. Warm up the oven to the lowest setting and cube the bread into bite-sized pieces.

The biscotti, once heated in the oven for a half hour or so, needs to cool down, then store in a fairly sturdy plastic bag (the edges are rough so it could poke a hole through a wimpier bag).

Early mornings, when we don't have time to buy bread before work, the biscotti really comes in handy. Pop a few cubes in a warm glass of milk and eat with a long spoon. It is really delicious, the oven brings out the golden deliciousness of the once-fresh bread. I prefer it over hot cereal!

Unleash the Gourmet inside of you and do a little experimenting with them.

Instead of baking your biskotti "in the raw", you can spice them up a bit and make them into croutons. Croutons have fallen out of favor with me lately, but they still make a great additions to salads and soups. Try them on Tomato Soup - a recipe link is included.

Biscotti cubes are a bit larger - croutons should be cubed as to look like "baby biskotti". Once you have a good amount of them (like a salad bowl full), pour two or three teaspoons of a vegetable base seasoning, like Mrs. Dash or Vegeta. Mix thoroughly. Now add a couple Tablespoons of olive oil. It should be a lightly seasoned, lightly oiled batch. Soggy is no good, so better to put a little then add more if needed.

Bake in the oven for a half hour or so. When you start smelling something wonderful, they are probably done!

Homemade breadcrumbs, as long as they are not burnt, are 100x better than the store-bought variety. For some reason, they absorb liquid much more efficiently. The store-bought ones I've bought in the past just sit there, these are "rougher" and "more porous".

All you do is take a fistful of biscotti and roll them out with a rolling pin. They should be the same consistency throughout. I sometimes roll them straight through the plastic bag to get the biscotti into smaller pieces.

Uses for breadcrumbs

The list goes on and on, but here are a few for starters...

• To thicken spaghetti sauce.
• To absorb extra fruit juices in an apple or cherry strudel.
• To fill up artichokes (see my hub).

Fried Egg Bread, or French Toast, is a happy quick meal at my home.  All you need is a loaf of day old french bread in one-inch thick slices, approximately 6-8 eggs, a cup of milk, 3 T. sugar, two shakes of ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. vanilla flavoring.  Mix in a shallow bowl so it will be easier to dip the bread.

I fry the bread in butter or margarine, oil just doesn't belong here, unless you happen to be out of the other two.  Careful that the butter doesn't burn.  Once the skillet is warm (test with a drop of water, it should react but not explode), put the bread slices in.  They should not be dripping but definitely soaked through.  Push them down with a spatula to help them cook faster and all the way through on medium heat.  Flip over and add a little more butter.  This is not a low calorie recipe, but one you won't be eating everyday, so enjoy.

Once they are done, cut in half and dust with powdered sugar.  Deee-lish!