Delicious ways to use Christmas leftovers

Don’t throw out the leftover sweet treats or tasty meats from your Christmas spread — there are plenty of easy ways to turn them into delicious meals.

Why do we buy so much food for one really special meal? And then we are stuck with eating leftovers for the next week or until it all goes really manky in the back of the fridge.

There are a couple of Christmas Day foods you should ditch if you haven’t polished them off on Boxing Day. These include anything with rice in it, homemade custard, and chicken that has been frozen, defrosted, reheated, cooked and then placed in the fridge again.

The biggest key in ensuring that you use up leftovers is to get a bit creative. Here are some nifty ideas.

JAFFLES

If you have loads of leftover meats and goodies from Christmas, you can make a load of jaffles and freeze the uncooked ones (i.e., sandwiches) so you can just whack one in the jaffle-maker for an instant meal.

You could do the traditional ham and cheese but if you want to live a little, try the following:

● Pulled Pork, Gravy and Roasted Vegetables

● Salami, Cheese & Mayonnaise

● Chicken, Cheese and Sweet Chilli Sauce

● Ham, Cheese, Tomato and Avocado (don’t freeze this one!)

● Chicken, Cheese, Pesto Sauce

MAKE A CHICKEN VOL AU VENT

So 1970s – but instead of using those tiny little vol au vent cases, you make a massive plate-sized one out of puff pastry.

Mix your leftover chicken with some cheese sauce, sour cream and perhaps a little curry powder and top with grated cheese and cook. Serve with leftover salad.

You could make a chicken vol au vent with you Christmas leftovers. Picture: Supplied

BAKED POTATOES

Grab a few of the biggest potatoes you can find, clean them and wrap them in foil and cook them for an hour. Then cut off the top – pull out some of the filling. Then re-fill the potato with any combination of Christmas leftovers. Top with cheese – dinner is made!

Think of combos such as:

● Pulled Pork Roast and Coleslaw with Sour Cream

● Pulled Chicken and Salad

● Roast Vegetables and Gravy

● Cabana, Cheese and Pretzels

LEFTOVER PAVLOVA

Okay, we are on to desserts. This is an area that is often chucked in the bin. But you can transform the remnants of that perfect pav into delicious Eton Mess ice cream.

Eton Mess is really cream mixed with broken pavlova but if you mix both of them with ice cream, you can freeze it and have pavlova-flavoured ice cream that will be safe for up to two months in the freezer.

You can transform the remnants of your perfect pavlova into delicious Eton Mess ice cream. Picture: Supplied

LEFTOVER CHRISTMAS CAKE

Cut the stale Christmas cake into slices and freeze them individually. When you feel like something a bit spesh, take it out and heat a heap of butter in a frying pan. Pan fry your piece of Christmas cake until it is golden brown and forms a delicious crust. Pop a dollop of ice cream on top and you’re done. Fried Christmas cake – delish!

Another way to keep stale Christmas cake is to cut it into crumbs then fold it through ice cream for a delicious Christmas cake ice cream.

These are just a few ideas. If you have loads of tinned goods, donate to a homeless shelter or a charity to spread the love around.

Jody Allen is the founder of mothers’ network Stay At Home Mum. Find her at @StayHomeMum on Facebook, @jodyallen.stayathomemum on Instagram, @JodyAllen_SAHM on Twitter

Originally published as Delicious ways to use Christmas leftovers