Make the most of your Christmas leftovers.

[chasingthegoodlife]

Anyone else have a fridge full of fancy food that needs to be eaten ASAP?

I love trying to get the most out of leftovers and not waste anything so as my hangover fades I have just finished giving the fridge a good clean and taking inventory.

After sending our guests home with as much as we could press upon them this is what I have to work with: 3 kilos of raw prawns, a few cooked lobster tails, a fair bit of ham on the bone, rolls, heaps of cream, cheeses, dips, olives, salsa, a roast veggie and baby spinach salad, other unprepared vegetables, mangoes, berries, plum pudding, various open bottles of wine, champagne and soft drink.

Things like beer and bags of potatoes will keep for ages and be used up over the next few months so am not worried about those.

So far I have shelled the prawns and made a stock from the shells, made a stir fry for lunch with a few of the prawns and some wilting veggies, and made some custard to go with the rest of the pudding, which we enjoyed on the couch the afternoon.

Dinner will be lobster tail and salad with mango for desert, and maybe a glass of champagne. The rest of the prawns will be cooked in garlic butter today and should keep for another day or two.

What is everyone else doing with their holiday leftovers?

[JLR]

I'm lucky - we had no visitors for Christmas, but have visitors arriving from tomorrow. Will be filling all the visitors up on our leftovers! :)

[Frankies Girl]

You can freeze the prawns and ham/bone for later stuff). I'd eat the dips and salad as those don't keep as long as some of the other stuff. Could use the cream to make cream of potato (or any veggie) soup. Cut up the fruit and lay out on flat tray like a cookie sheet to freeze, then put frozen fruit into baggies to use for smoothies later (can throw them in the blender frozen - yummy!)

Lobster salad? Little mayo, chop olives, lobster, served on crusty rolls?

I chop up rough looking veggies that make sense to go in soup, and then freeze them in a large bag, accumulating enough to throw in with some bones to make a bone broth. With that ham and bone and any useble veggies, a big pot of either bean soup or my go-to would be cream of veggie soup with ham with the ingredients you have on hand anyway.

Oh! With the prawns and salsa available, I'd do a Mexican shrimp cocktail version - mix salsa with cocktail sauce (I make our own using organic ketchup, horseradish and lemon juice), add a few dashes of blackening seasoning, and add in some cooked prawns and then add to the salsa/sauce and include some chunks of avocado, and chill for at least 2 hours. Serve on tortilla chips. Sooooo good!