Clever Christmas leftovers

For the next seven days, you're eating against the clock.

Faced with 3kg of decaying leg ham, half a turkey and a bowl of rapidly ageing prawns you are fighting off the inevitable collision between the food's limited shelf life and your family's capacity to eat leftovers every day in an increasingly bizarre range of dishes.

It's Boxing Day.

Test cricket. The beach. Department store sales. And the first day of leftovers, when home cooks are stretched to their creative limits trying to find interesting things to do with those Christmas lunch treats that will linger in the fridge for a week or two before being thrown out.

Ham and cheese bake? Ham, turkey and cheese bake? Ham, turkey, cheese and brussels sprouts bake? Brussels sprouts salad with ham? Christmas leftover cookery is a culinary punchline. Who could forget the horror of the turkey curry buffet from Bridget Jones's Diary.

There is a solution. The egg. It is leftovers' best friend.

Omelettes, frittatas, bakes, tortillas, fritters: these are all variations on the theme. Given it's Christmas, you could try a ham version of Huevos en el Purgatorio, eggs in purgatory, a roast pumpkin/carrot and ham frittata or a herb and turkey omelette.

Bubble and squeak is the ultimate leftover dish and great for breakfast. But beware. It's no coincidence that from Boxing Day the television is saturated with Jenny Craig ads and the Home Shopping Channel does a brisk business in Spanx. Over-eating is the curse of Christmas.

But the true winners at Christmas are dogs and cats. As the calendar ticks over into the new year, our domestic pets eat like at no other time of the year, as the burden of leftovers consumption is shared by Fido and Mr Wiggles. By the time January 2 has arrived, their bowls are filled hourly with old stuffing, turkey, ham and chopped veg.

And as the new year enters its first week, it is with great thanks that you will polish off the last turkey and cranberry toasted sandwich of the festive season.

And remember, there are just 358 shopping days to Christmas.