I Want These Every Day [homemade croutons]

I was one of those kids that didn't eat bread crusts. Until I was forced to, and discovered that it doesn't taste bad, as kid brain had led me to believe (and then I later took to calling them "the butt" of the bread, also because of kid brain).
Now, many many years later, while bread ends aren't gross or anything, they're not as tasty - I blame it on the fact that I buy the 99 cent bread versus the much better stuff (I would eat potato bread bread ends every day if I could!). So, for the last long while, I've not been eating them (it's shameful to waste food, I know, but most of the time, once we're at the end of a loaf of bread, it's starting to go stale, anyway).

Except not any more.
Because a little while ago, I read over at Medium Sized Family that Jamie saves the bread ends in the freezer and makes croutons with them. 
What?!
This is a thing?!
Why did nobody tell me this?!
Also, why are there so many things in life that nobody tells me. It's normally things that just seem normal that everyone I tell responds with "yeah, that's a thing, I thought you knew" - we should just assume by now that I don't know and any awesome information like this needs to be shared with me!

Either way, croutons. 
Oh man.
I will gladly eat any and all croutons as a snack, because deliciously seasoned bread bits. I mean, that's all the reason one needs, right? I don't buy them often, though, even though they are decently priced, because we have so many other things that need to be purchased, which doesn't leave any room for them.
But to make my own? With bread I'm not already using? C'mon, that's a dream come true!

So, for a few weeks, I saved up bread ends in the freezer. I even had a few non-ends stashed away, as one loaf sat for a little too long.
Finally, the other day I took them all out and said "today's the day!"
And it was. Oh, it was. It was the very best day.

I used the recipe that The Pioneer Woman has on her blog, except I skipped the cheese (which is an odd thing for me to say, right?).
I had well over 3 cups of bread bits, so I ended up using double the amount of olive oil, and just seasoned with garlic and onion powder, as I would anything else (read: lots and lots).

My only issue with making the recipe has nothing to do with the recipe itself, but my lack of proper cookware. I don't have an actual cookie sheet, but one of those metal pizza pans, which was not quite large enough for the quantity of croutons I was making.
I had to leave them in the oven for about twice as long as the recipe suggests, and even then not all the pieces were perfect crunchy (but I prefer squishier croutons to hard-as-a-rock ones anyway).

Then they come out of the oven, and my house smelled like bliss. And then I was as happy was I could possibly be.
They were delicious. Amazingly so. And I had a whole bowl! Except I would not recommend making a whole bowl at a time, because then that means you have a whole bowl of croutons...which, at least for me, means I want to eat said whole bowl of croutons, if you catch my drift.

My biggest problem with this, though?
They don't last.
No, not because I ate them all, but because the next day they were no longer crunchy. I'm guessing it had partly to do with them not getting cooked all the way the first day in the first place, and partly to do with they don't have the preservatives that store bought ones do to keep them crunchy. Even the day I made them, they were starting to get kind of sad in the evening after having been perfectly fresh a few hours before.
Which just means that I need to make them in smaller batches and more frequently.
Darn. Whatever will I do?

Are there any other "yeah, that's a thing, I thought you knew" kinds of things that I need to be aware of? What other kinds of seasonings would you add to croutons?

~ Havok

If you liked this post, check out these other posts!

Grilled Cheese & Quesadillas - the best way ever

Breakfast AND Dessert - Adventures in Baking

Pepperoni Roll Ups - Sunday Foodie Bits

[Edit 5/23/2016: Added to You're Gonna Love It link party, Show & Tell link party, and Projects Inspired link party]
[Edit 5/24/2016: Added to Moonlight & Mason Jars link party]
[Edit 5/26/2016: Added to Blogger's Pit Stop link party and What to do Weekends link party]