How-to guides

Once a plan is made, it works the same way in Ready-made week, Build your own plan and the Household Meal Adapter.

Read a meal

• The score (out of 100) is how well the meal fits you: your health focus, budget, what’s at home and your week. Tap it to see why.
• Why this? gives the short reason it’s in your plan.
• Details shows the ingredients with amounts, the steps, the nutrition and Ideas: why this meal works for your health focus, one thing to take away, and a tip for next time. Cooking view shows one big step at a time. Food bought in packs also says how much of the pack it uses, like “about ½ bunch”.
• Add a note on a meal’s page, like “the kids love this one”. It’s kept on your device and shown on the meal whenever it comes up.

Colours at a glance

• Meals each have a colour: breakfast amber, lunch teal, dinner green and snacks coral. You’ll see it on the meal’s label, behind its food icon, and in the dots under each day; a solid dot is a meal you’ve ticked.
• Your health focus has its own colour, at the top of the plan and on each meal’s badges and score: diabetes cyan-teal, blood pressure blue, PMOS plum, weight brown, GLP-1 violet and general healthy eating green.
• The bar at the bottom (on a phone) lights up the open tab: Plan green, Shopping orange, Prep teal and More purple.
• Food groups share colours on the shopping list and in Prep day: vegetables green; greens and canned food teal; garlic, ginger, citrus, oils and sauces yellow; grains, beans and bread amber; meat coral; dairy blue; nuts and seeds pink.

Change a meal

• Swap offers another meal that fits (best fit, less waste, cheaper, uses what you have, or closest to this one). Each option says what it leaves spare or uses up from your shopping. Or keep the meal and change a part: trade one ingredient for another, add something to it, or make it smaller.
• Browse meals (next to Need a meal now?) shows every meal that suits your allergies and diet. Search by name or ingredient, filter by meal, time, cuisine or your 👍 favourites, open any meal, and put it in your plan on the day you choose. The Household Meal Adapter has its own Browse meals by cuisine.
• Move to… puts the meal on another day; the two meals change places. Days are a suggestion: move meals to cook them in any order (in the week view you can also drag them).
• Not up to cooking? (lunch and dinner) offers something quick, leftovers if you have them, a meal made from what you have (type in what’s in your cupboard and fridge), or eating out. If you eat out after you’ve shopped, choose whether to keep that meal’s food for later or cook it another day.

Nothing changes until you choose, and most changes have an Undo right after.

Tick off what you ate

• Tap the ✓ on a meal (Done in the Household Meal Adapter) when you’ve had it. Then tell NourishFix how it went: 👍 Liked it or 👎 Not again. Your ratings shape the next plan. The tick turns bright green, and once every meal of a day is ticked, the day shows Day done.
• Tap the × (Skip in the Household Meal Adapter) to skip a meal after a change of plan. It’s taken off the shopping list and prep day.

Shop and prep day

• On the last set-up screen, choose whether the plan starts today or tomorrow. From midday it suggests tomorrow, so today is free to shop and prep.
• Prep day (the Prep tab at the bottom on a phone, or the Prep day button on a computer) helps you cook ahead. Choose the day and time: the day before Day 1 (4pm unless you change it) or first thing on Day 1. Cooked food keeps about 3 days in the fridge, so the prep day covers Days 1–3, and a top-up on the evening of Day 3 covers the next 3 days. Food that freezes well is made once, with the later portions frozen. Shop first: the shopping list already includes everything to prep.
• Chop and batch, Cook ahead or Both (at the top of Prep day; Both unless you change it). Chop and batch gets ingredients ready while every meal is still cooked fresh: chopping vegetables, washing greens, cooking grains, mixing dressings, and portioning meat (raw chicken waits in the fridge only for the next day’s meal; the rest is frozen, with a reminder to move it to the fridge the evening before). Each job shows the amount, the meals it’s for and how long it keeps. Food that doesn’t keep once cut, like avocado, tomato and raw fish, is listed under Do on the night. Tick a job when it’s done, and its meals show Ready from prep day and the quicker time. Cook ahead cooks dishes once and reheats them.
• Worth prepping this week suggests what to cook ahead, one at a time. Choose Add to my prep or Not this week. Your prep list keeps what you’ve added, with ticks and amounts. You can add whole meals that keep well and your own tasks, like “Wash the lunch boxes”. It also suggests tasks, such as moving a frozen portion to the fridge the evening before.
• Add to my calendar saves the prep day and top-ups to your phone’s calendar, with a reminder 30 minutes before.
• Shopping list combines everything the plan needs, sorted by shop section, in amounts you can buy. Tick items as you go and add your own.
• Share this list with your household makes a private link others can open on their phones.
• After shopping, enter what it really cost, so the price estimates learn your shop.
• Plans favour meals that finish packs you’ve opened, like two meals that each use half a bunch of spinach. The shopping list estimates how much less fresh food is left over as a result, and Your kitchen keeps a running total.

More tools (under More)

• Plan next week: one screen to make the next plan. It avoids repeats, except the meals you gave a 👍.
• Your kitchen: what you have at home, and what to use soon. The plan suggests meals that use them.
• What NourishFix has learned: your likes, dislikes and the changes it suggests (nothing changes without your yes).
• Food lookup: check what’s in a food.
• Import a recipe: paste a link, a copied recipe page, or a social media caption or video description, then check the details and the ingredients. Instagram, TikTok and Facebook don’t let apps read their posts, so copy the caption there instead; if a recipe is only in a video, type it in yourself. Imported recipes stay on your device, under My recipes.
• Cooking basics: flavour without a recipe, portions by hand, the plate method, how much grain and beans to cook, swapping anything, and keeping food safe. And Print.
• Clear and start over clears only that planner’s plan; your allergies, ratings and kitchen stay. You can undo it straight after.

Change your answers

Edit preferences (or Edit household) takes you back through the set-up with your answers filled in, so you can change one thing without starting again. The set-up also asks which meals to plan: all four, or just dinners, for example. Only those are planned and shopped for. Plans run for 7, 14 or 30 days.

What your planners share

• Your allergies are the same in every planner, the no-cook finder included. Add one anywhere and your other plans follow: the next time you open one, only the meals with that allergen are replaced, and the plan tells you which.
• Your ratings, meal notes and kitchen follow you too, so a meal you gave a 👎 stays down in every planner.
• Setting up another planner? Your allergies, diet, foods to avoid and kitchen are filled in from your other plan, for you to check and change.
• Each plan, with its days, shopping list, health focus and household, stays its own.

Something not covered here? The help page answers common questions, from installing the app to keeping a backup.