Frugal Whole Wheat Breadcrumbs

Do you toss your bread heels out? Not me. Not anymore. You may have caught my recipe for Frugal Whole Wheat French Toast a few months back. Another thing I like to do with bread heels is make bread crumbs. I'm a lazy cook so I don't like pulsing a slice of bread when I need breadcrumbs for a recipe. And I'm an label reading snob, rarely choosing the packaged version of anything I can make at home (I am guilty of buying store bought bread, haven't ventured out to baking bread yet, but if anyone wants to give me a bread maker for Christmas I suppose I could make room on my counter top for it...) I also like to avoid wasting anything I buy, so using up bread heels for bread crumbs fits right in with my kitchen philosophy.

I save my bread heels in a plastic bag in the freezer until I have a dozen or more pieces, then I make up a batch of french toast or bread crumbs. Mostly I use bread crumbs to dredge meat before baking or pan frying, like in chicken tenders. They also go in to bind meat for meatballs or salmon patties. For stuffing recipes, I can turn a stash of freezer heels into bread cubes using the same method below.

Frugal Whole Wheat Breadcrumbs
12 or more whole wheat bread heels

Directions
Place bread heels on a baking sheet and place in a 200 degree oven. You're trying to dry the bread out, not toast it. Check bread in 10 minutes, and turn over when top side feels dry. Bake for 10 minutes (or more) on second side. Times are approximate, frozen bread will take longer to dry out than room temp bread. Let bread cool off, break into pieces (it will break if it's dry, if it tears there is still too much moisture in it and it won't preserve as long) and pulse in processor until you have crumbs or desired consistency. Store in fridge in air-tight container. I usually use my supply up in a month or two, so not sure how long they'll keep.

For Frugal Whole Wheat Bread Cubes cut the bread into cubes before drying in the oven. Store until ready to use, or mix with herbs, butter and veggies before stuffing and baking. Here is my recipe for Pork Chops with Pomegranate Stuffing.

Got a frugal kitchen tip to share? Read you in the comments!