My personal view is that the reason you eat salads is in order to eat croutons

But the commercial ones I've been able to find are mediocre at best: Either they are tiny uniform cubes of tasteless white bread, or they are more substantial but often hard as a rock.

My canonical croutons are the ones the cook at a restaurant in Twenty Nine Palms, California, whipped up on the fly when I asked the waitress if there were any: irregularly sized pieces, very flavorful, crunchy on the outside and still ever-so-slightly warm on the inside.

Recognizing that no "bagged" crouton can approach that, when there is not time or inclination to do-it-yourself, do you have recommendations?