As the days get shorter and autumn routines settle in, lunchtimes can often feel squeezed between meetings, deadlines, and everything else on your to-do list. That’s why Wrexham Council is teaming up with Wales Recycles to help make lunchtime easier, tastier, and greener. With a little smart cooking, you can enjoy quick, flexible meals that save time, cut down on food waste, and keep you fuelled for the day – all while helping Wales on its journey to become the number one recycling nation in the world.
We’re already second in the global recycling league, just behind Austria – but food waste is where we can make the biggest impact. A quarter of the average rubbish bin in Wales is still made up of food, and most of it could have been eaten. That’s wasted meals, wasted money, and wasted energy.
With a little smart planning, you can cook once and enjoy it in different ways across the week – saving time, eating well, and making the most of what you’ve got. And don’t forget, the bits you can’t eat – like peelings, stalks, bones or eggshells – go straight into your food caddy, where they go to create powerful fertiliser for Wrexham’s gardens, parks and allotments!
Cook once, eat smart all week: Prep it. Flex it. Recycle it!
Here are three simple, no-fuss recipes that are perfect for making ahead and reworking into speedy, satisfying lunches:
Jazzed-up stew – hearty, simple & flexible
Wholesome, warming, and full of flavour, this chilli is built for busy weeks. Great for as serving as a quick nutritious lunch or a post-work warming dinner.
Start with onion, garlic, mince (meat, veggie, or lentil-based), beans, and tinned tomatoes or passata. Then bulk it out with whatever’s in the fridge – grated carrot, courgette, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, spinach, even a handful of peas or corn. Once cooked, it’s a base you can enjoy all week: spoon it into wraps with salad and salsa, load it onto a jacket potato with yoghurt and cheese, or even stir it through pasta for a quick office lunch. Don’t forget: onion skins, carrot tops, and pepper stalks belong in your food caddy, not the bin.
No-Fuss Egg Bake
This traybake is a real lifesaver for grab-and-go lunches. Whisk up eggs with a splash of milk, pour over lightly cooked onion, and whatever veg or protein you’ve got handy, and bake until golden. Leftover sausages, roasted veg, chopped spinach, mushrooms or peppers all work brilliantly, with a bit of cheese or pesto to finish it off. Slice it into squares to tuck into wraps, pile onto toast with avocado, or simply enjoy cold as a protein-packed snack between meetings. Any inedible peelings and eggshells shells can go straight into the food caddy to be turned into a powerful fertiliser.
Mighty Recovery Shake
When there’s no time to prep, this shake blends up in seconds, is a great way to use up any leftover or over-ripe fruit and keeps you powering on through a busy day. Just blitz a banana with yoghurt or protein powder, milk of your choice, and some ice. Throw in berries, nut butter, oats, seeds, or spinach to boost the goodness. Sip it straight after a lunch-time work-out, pour it into a bowl topped with fruit and granola, or keep it in the fridge overnight for a next-day breakfast that doubles up as a desk snack. Banana skins, fruit cores and pips? Straight into the caddy – where they’ll be turned into a useful soil improver.
Take the Smart Food Challenge and win a delicious Welsh prize
Head over to Wales Recycles to take the Smart Food Challenge, discover more smart recipes that will save you time and money, and be in with a chance of winning a delicious Welsh prize.
