Waste Not...leftover hamburger buns.

I hate to waste food. Really hate it. To me, not only is it a waste of my money, it is showing ingratitude for the food I was blessed with. I try hard to use the "scraps" in other creations when at all possible. Saturday we had some friends over for a BBQ and you are always left with the hamburger buns that you over bought. Now, there is no way I am going to use them for any other dish since they were store bought, tasteless buns except for.....

Croutons. Croutons are a great way to use up the leftover buns and french bread. It is so easy and they store great. If you have lots, you can put them in mason jars and use a food saver vacuum lid if you have one. 

To make your own, simply cut the bread into squares or be real cute and make shapes. 

Then, drizzle with olive oil or spray with an oil sprayer. Sprinkle with herbs of choice, garlic powder and sea salt. I love the Herbs de Provence myself. 

Bake in the oven on 300 , tossing now and then until they are crisp. You don't want them brown, just dried out. 

Now, if you need something to serve along side your salad topped with homemade croutons, you can try these cute little pinwheels out.....

Also super easy but oh so appetizing. It is a great way to use the leftovers in the fridge.

To make these, make your favorite pizza dough or you can borrow my recipe here:

Pizza Dough

4 cups all purpose flour, or half whole grain

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tsp yeast in 1/4 cup warm water

1 T. Olive oil

Mix yeast in measuring cup with 1/4 cups warm water. Let yeast get foamy. Put 3 cups of flour in bowl with salt. Mix and stir in 1 1/2 cups warm water, oil and yeast mixture. Mix with spoon until sticky. Add more flour until the dough is only slightly sticky. Let rest for 8 minutes. Knead again until dough is smooth and elastic. Let rise for 4 hours. 

 I let the dough rise for about an hour for this recipe. I used half whole grain, half white flour. All whole grain would be a little heavy. 

Roll out dough to about 1/3 inch thick. Sprinkle with about 2 cups mozzarella or more if desired. Top with whatever you desire. I used thin prosciutto, chopped onions, chopped spinach and a little crumbled bacon. The total amount of meat I used was 4 oz. and this fed 6 hungry people for dinner and two of us for lunch.

After the toppings are on, roll up the dough like a cinnamon roll, long side first. Pinch seams and edges. Place seam side down on a jelly roll pan. I put mine on parchment and had to put the roll up diagonally on the pan to make it fit.

Brush the entire top with olive oil and bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until golden. The top will be crispy.

Let cool a few minutes and serve alongside some marinara sauce for dipping. Yummy.