Julie Goodwin is positively glowing after a flat out year for the 2009 MasterChef winner. Here are her tips on how to be environmentally friendly this Christmas.

According to new research from the GLAD Degradable Waste Report, nine in ten Australians could be doing more to make their homes greener and more environmentally friendly. It's an important message as we approach Christmas, what with all the extra waste. Now is the perfect time to take steps to minimise your environmental impact.

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"It's not actually hard," Julie says. "It's about being mindful and remembering to do things like turn off the light when you're not in the room. People think you have to be a gardener to have a compost bin but all you need to do is put your organic waste aside so that it doesn't take up all that space in landfill. You stick it in a bin out the back and it just breaks down to nothing."

Julie's green Christmas tips

• Be conscious of exactly how many people you're going to have. I would never advocate skimping at Christmas time, but don't go nuts either.
• Storage is critical. If you finish your Christmas lunch, don't leave the whole ham sitting out there for three hours while you digest. Whack it in its calico bag and put it in the fridge. Put the food away before you put the dishes away.
• As far as oysters and prawns go, to reduce the waste I line a tray with ice and put another tray on top and put my prawns onto that, so they're chilled.
• We always have too much for the fridge at Christmas time, so we use an eski for the drinks.
• Get creative with leftovers. When you get bored, that's when half of it goes in the bin. I love to cut thick slabs of ham off the bone and cut up fresh pineapple and grill them on the barbie. You can put it through pastas, quiches, in omelettes, fried rice — it doesn't have to be a ham sandwich.
• Use seasonal fruit and veggies. In summer there are lovely stone fruits and beautiful salad vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers. Buy things that are grown as close to home as possible — from down the road at the farmers' markets. If you buy it from the supermarket it's been trucked from somewhere else so you've got carbon emissions. The closest to the way nature intended it, the better. Every time food is processed it uses energy, and it takes away from what's nutritious.
• Grow your own. You don't have to have a herb garden, you don't have to have a veggie garden. Stick a tomato plant in the front yard, they grow like weeds and they're beautiful tomatoes. And herbs — they can be in a pot, they can be in a crack in the footpath — it's just as easy as anything. And if they're right outside your kitchen door, you'll use them and they give such a lift to your cooking.

So how will 2010 end for our favourite mum from Gosford?

"We'll be at home for our Christmas Eve roast," she says. "We'll be at my sister's place for Christmas lunch and then back at our place for the mixed families' Christmas on Boxing Day. Three days of Christmas, baby! And then a big long break."

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Happy Christmas Julie!