Homemade Gluten Free Italian Breadcrumbs

Last night for dinner we had Italian Breaded Pork Chops- which were delicious.

The recipe calls for Italian seasoned breadcrumbs which are something that I do not keep on hand for a few reasons. Reason one is that I prefer to make things from scratch as much as possible, reason two is that I am gluten free so I cannot eat regular breadcrumbs and reason three is that gluten free breadcrumbs are super expensive and I am cheap.

As you can tell, I ended up making my own Italian seasoned breadcrumbs and I was very happy with how they turned out.

First I brushed each side of gluten free bread with melted butter (I am mostly dairy free so I used Earth Balance Buttery Spread) and then sprinkled each side with Italian seasoning and some salt. I used store bought gluten free bread that I got a good deal on but you can just as easily use homemade bread or regular bread if you are not gluten free.

I placed the bread in an oven preheated to 325 degrees for about 30 minutes, making sure to flip halfway through. Once done, let the bread cool.

Place cooled bread into a large zipper top bag and maliciously beat with a rolling pin- this is the best part because smashing things is fun. Once the bread has been reduced to crumbs you are done! This recipe makes a panko style crumb, but you can easily make a finer crumb by utilizing a blender or food processor (though definitely not as fun). Plus, I love panko crumbs because they make your food crispier and who doesn't love them a crispy, baked pork chop?

Making your own seasoned breadcrumbs is so easy to do but what makes it even better is that it's also cheap to do and more healthy for you. I really love being able to control the ingredients in the food I serve my family- though I'll be even happier when I find a gluten free bread recipe that I actually like so I don't have to rely on store bought. Since I switched to making my own breadcrumbs my family has not grumbled once about wanting me to use store bought and they can't even tell that I am using gluten free ones!

Next time I plan on making a larger batch so that I can save some in the freezer for nights when I'm short on time, which when I think about it is pretty much every night  ; )