The Easter bank holiday is a great time for rustling up tasty meals for the whole family, but between the chocolate eggs and the roast lamb, there's usually a whole lot of leftovers.
Make sure you make the most of them:
• If you need to freeze leftover lamb from Easter Sunday lunch, let it cool and then cut it into smaller pieces so it will defrost quickly. If you seal it in a plastic freezer bag it will keep for up to a month – perfect for a stir fry!
• Leftovers from Sunday lunch can also be used for bubble & squeak, or as the filling for a quick and easy savoury pancake. Check www.recycleforessex.co.uk for some fantastic leftover recipes
• If you are buying eggs to make Easter cakes don’t forget to put the ones that need using up first at the front. If you have leftover eggs these can easily be whipped up into omelettes with a bit of grated cheese
• If you need to freeze leftover cake put greaseproof paper between each slice – this will allow you to remove a few slices at a time rather than defrosting the whole cake
• Around 80 million chocolate eggs are sold in the UK at Easter, which generates around 4,370 tonnes of card and 160 tonnes of foil waste. Most of the plastic packaging used is not recyclable yet, which means it ends up in landfill.
• Making your own chocolate eggs is a fun way of cutting down on the amount of packaging used over Easter. Chocolate moulds are available in many baking and craft shops, or you could save the plastic used from this year’s eggs. Simply melt the chocolate, set in the freezer and keep building up the layers until you have a thick egg. You can wrap the eggs in tinfoil, and reuse it for weekday sandwiches.
If you do have packaging left over from Easter, check with your district and borough council to see what they collect at the kerbside, and if collection days are affected by the Bank Holiday. You can also visit one of our recycling centres – check www.essex.gov.uk/recyclingcentres for details of opening times.
