WE HAVE a bit of a love/hate relationship with leftovers after Christmas.

Sure, waking up on Boxing Day to a fridge full of ham and roast meat is never a bad thing, but five days of turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches gets old very fast.

Often we toss out platefuls of perfectly fine food because even just the thought of stomaching Christmas lunch all over again brings on a premature food-coma.

So on National Leftovers Day, which is today, not-for-profit organisation Do Something! is encouraging everyone to think twice before wasting food.

DoSomething! estimate that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food will go to waste this festive season alone, part of the $8 billion worth of food we throw out annually.

So before you tilt that plate towards the bin, give these super easy recipes a try...

Don't Drop the Turkey Salad

Ingredients

 Cold roast turkey meat, chunkily shredded with your hands

 Dried cranberries

 Cooked quinoa or cous cous

 Any leftover roasted root veg (sweet potato/pumpkin)

 Shallots/Spring onions

 Rocket leaves

 Olive oil

 Lemon zest

 Cranberry juice, hot

 Salt and pepper

Method

Rehydrate the cranberries in hot cranberry juice, allow the mix to cool. Combine all ingredients except for olive oil, flowers and rocket (including a dash of the rehydrating juice) in a bowl. Toss through rocket and olive oil for each serve.

Roast Meat Tacos

Ingredients

 1 cup shredded roasted free range meat and ¼ cup of the roasting juices or gravy

 4 mini soft tacos

 ¼ cup Persian feta in (chilli) oil

 1 tbsp sambal oelek paste

 salad greens

 thinly sliced cucumber

Method

To prepare, crush feta in some of the oil with a fork to make a "sauce", top with sambal paste. Warm shredded roast meat in some of the roasting juices or gravy, either in the oven or in the microwave. Warm tacos in a microwave, according to instructions on packet. Arrange ingredients on separate plates and platters. To assemble and serve, place taco on a plate, top with greens (and cucumber if using), shredded roast and the feta-sambal sauce. Wrap it up and enjoy.

LEFTOVER FACTS

Each year, Australians throw out $8 billion worth of food. That's four million tonnes of edible food being sent to landfill.

Do Something! estimate that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food will go to waste during the festive season, where food continues to be Australians the single biggest expenditure item.

Leftovers make up 27% of all food thrown out by Australian households. That's second only to fruit and vegetables which account for 33%.

450,000 garbage trucks worth of food is wasted in Australia each year.