Top Tips For [After] Christmas

Everything is being taken down and put away if you havent quite finished yet, here are some of my favourite ideas for post-Christmas-recycling. I dont think any of them are original, I have just picked them up over the years

Use Christmas cards to make cards and gift tags for next year and thank you cards for this year.

Packs of blank cards are very cheap in places like The Works, and The Range, and some Pritt or double sided tape makes it all a very easy process.

 

Wrapping paper- whatever the magazines suggest is not always easy to re-use but you can put it through a shredder and use it as packing material

Charity Shops  need you! Well, they need the gifts you received which you will never use. And if you got a new scarf/ tie/ handbag, why not consider donating an old one?

It is silly [and maybe even wrong] to clutter shelves and drawers with unused items which could benefit others

Leftover Christmas food has many possible ways of being served.

Think creatively before you throw it out!

January is the month for quiches and soups

1. DOUBLE OR WHIPPING CREAM if it is still in date, then whip and freeze it. Any cream can be added to a home-made soup for added luxury, or in a quiche filling
2. CHESTNUTS stir into casserole, or warm through with sprouts or red cabbage
3. CRISPS crumble these on top of casseroles, or any pie topped with mashed potatoes.
4. NUTS drop them into a casserole. Grind them fairly finely in a processor and use to make a crumb crust for quiches.
5. MILK- if you have too much and it is just on the turn use it to make ricotta [see here] and put THAT in a quiche
6. VEGETABLES- these can either go into soups [with the turkey stock you virtuously made and froze last week] OR into quiches.
7. CHEESE you guessed it, quiches.
8. PICKLES & CHUTNEYS Jamies idea if there is an odd spoonful left in the jar, stir it into a casserole for added flavour. Better than than left indefinitely in the fridge to grow whiskers.[the pickle, not Jamie]
9. WINE in the unlikely event of half a glassful left in the bottle sling it into a casserole, or in with stewed fruit- or freeze to use like that later.

Then theres all the sweet stuff

1. PANETTONE makes wonderful bread and butter pudding, or you can slice it and panfry in a little butter, serve with jam/custard/icecream
2. DATES/DRIED FRUIT/CRANBERRIES go well into cakes and muffins [and freeze them for treats on cold February afternoons] [see here]
3. BARS OF CHOCOLATE wrap carefully, and HIDE somewhere to use later in cooking.
4. SPONGE CAKES- if going stale, make into trifle. The last spoonful in a jar of jam can be added here [or a jar of cranberry sauce] Yogurt will substitute for cream [stir in a tsp of icing sugar if too sharp]
5. SWEET BISCUITS the crumbs and broken bits in the tin will make a sweet crumb crust for a dessert. Sliced bananas and some custard will make a good filling.

Like The Frugal Queen [here] I always find it useful to make a post-Christmas audit of all food cupboards/fridge/freezer [and those tins and boxes lurking at the back of the sideboard] and then plan menus.

but I have a question for you, dear friends can anybody come up with a good way to recycle star-shaped pretzels and Twiglets?

if not, I am afraid they may end up being thoughtlessly nibbled as we watch the TV, and food eaten like that is doubly fattening.