Part of fine cooking on a budget means minimizing waste and utilizing leftovers, and one of my favorite ways to do that is by making my own breadcrumbs. For the first time, though, I tried something different.

A recent dinner party left us with a couple baguettes, which we used to make homemade garlic bread, full of butter and real garlic. Then we did something dumb; we left the garlic bread out overnight. It was fine, but too hard to eat. Instead of tossing it, I decided to try something new: garlic breadcrumbs!

They’ve been in my fridge for awhile waiting for a purpose, but I found it when I made some delicious breaded tilapia. I mixed the garlic breadcrumbs with The Spice House’s Chesapeake Bay seasoning (The Spice House’s version of classic Old Bay).

I took the tilapia fillets and pressed them into the garlic breadcrumbs and panfried the fish in a little bit of olive oil. The flavor was light and crispy, and absolutely wonderful. I served it with butter-and-garlic orzo and broccolini (sometimes called baby broccoli).

Another great discovery made entirely by accident! Be creative in the kitchen and good things will happen!