Feed Everyone Salad and Homemade Croutons

This year for Thanksgiving at my in-laws, my task was simple: bring a salad.

Simple enough. I, however, managed to complicate things a bit. First, I spent entirely way too much time on the internet looking for ritzed-up salads for Thanksgiving.Then I spent even more time questioning my husband about which fruits and veggies his family likes. Do your parents like green onions? Just Dad? Oh...what about baby tomatoes? Etc., etc. Finally I just decided to throw a bunch of greens and veggies together and make my own croutons to top it off.

It takes a while to chop everything, but I think it was worth it to have a huge salad with tons of variety (to please everyone). I also made big enough chunks of veggies for picky eaters to toss to the side of their plate if they wish. At the last minute I decided not to dress it at all--this allows everyone to use whatever dressing they like!

For the salad:

1 heart of romaine
2-ish cups of spinach leaves
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped, quartered cucumber
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
10-ish baby tomatoes
1 Tbsp. chopped green onions

Chop all veggies.

Layer greens. Toss in large container. Top with all other veggies and fruit!

Done. Perfect.

The croutons are super easy too! I had some leftover drop biscuits to use up and they worked great. If you don't already have some stale bread or biscuits to use up, you can quick make up a batch in ten minutes or less with baking mix and water.

I used:

4 probably-not-going-to-eat-again drop biscuits
1/2 cup olive oil
1 full Tbsp. dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Cut up biscuits into quarter-size chunks. Place in large container that has a lid. Mix rosemary in with oil and stir well.

Drizzle the olive oil mixture onto the biscuit chunks.

Seal with lid and shake well for thirty seconds.

Transfer the bread onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for an hour, turning croutons over themselves every ten to fifteen minutes. If you don't think they're dry enough, up the temp. to 350. Allow lots of time to cool and enjoy with salad!

I'm so excited for using up old bread I knew I wouldn't eat. Can't wait to dig in!

Hope this Thanksgiving brings you much life and joy.