How Nomstash works
You pick the dishes. Nomstash prices the shop at your supermarket, scales the recipes to your portions, labels every container, keeps count of the freezer and tells you each evening what to move to the fridge.
Plan
Pick the dishes you want in the freezer and say who’s eating. Nomstash works out the portions.
There are 42 dishes to choose from, from bolognese and katsu curry to fish pie and flapjack. You set the portions for each person, so a child’s portion is never counted as an adult’s dinner, and leftovers are planned onto another night instead of found at the back of the fridge.
Some dishes don’t belong in the freezer. Carbonara is made on the night, because eggs and cream don’t freeze, so Nomstash plans it for the night you cook it.
- Mon Lentil bolognese Freezer 2 adult · 1 child
- Tue Roast dinner On the night Cook 6 portions, 3 for Wednesday
- Wed Roast dinner Leftovers From Tuesday
- Thu Carbonara On the night Eggs and cream don’t freeze
- Fri Tikka masala Freezer 2 adult · 1 child
- Sat Chilli con carne Freezer 2 adult · 1 child
- Sun Cook day Cook day Katsu sauce, cottage pie, parsnip soup
An example week. Yours is built from your own dishes and household.
Shop
One shopping list for the whole cook day, priced at your supermarket.
The prices come from your supermarket’s live prices, so you know what the cook day costs before you leave the house, and what each portion works out at. Anything the plan takes from your freezer is already off the list.
Take it round the shop or use it for your online order, whichever you do now.
- Beef mince, 5% fat, 1kg£6.50
- Red lentils, 1kg£1.85
- Chicken thighs, boneless, 1kg£5.25
- Chopped tomatoes, 6 × 400g£2.82
- Kidney beans, 3 × 400g£1.65
- Onions, carrots, garlic, ginger£3.40
- Coconut milk, yoghurt, spices£4.10
Total£25.57
24 portions · £1.07 a portion
Example figures. Yours come from your own plan and your own supermarket.
Cook day
Every recipe is scaled to the portions you planned.
Cook mode takes you through each method one step at a time, with a timer when a step needs one. You cook exactly enough to fill the containers, and nothing sits in the fridge going limp.
New to it? Start with our guide on how to plan a cook day.
- Tikka masala 8 portions · 4 containers
- Lentil bolognese 8 portions · 4 containers
- Chilli con carne 8 portions · 4 containers
24 portions · 12 containers
Labels
Every container gets a label, so nothing in the freezer is a mystery.
Each label carries the dish, the day it was made, the portions inside, the container’s own code and a QR code. Scan the label and Nomstash opens that container, or marks it eaten, so the count of what’s in the freezer stays right without you writing anything down.
- Lentil bolognese
- The dish.
- Made Sun
- The day it was cooked.
- 2 portions
- What’s in this container.
- 5DZU-09LO
- This container’s own code, so two batches of the same dish never get mixed up.
- QR code
- Scan it to open the container in Nomstash, or mark it eaten.
Stash
Nomstash keeps count of what’s in the freezer, by the portion, oldest first.
Portions are counted by size, adult, child and baby, because three child portions aren’t three dinners for an adult. The oldest container stays at the top, so it comes out before anything newer and nothing is left at the bottom of the freezer.
How to freeze and defrost safely is in our guide to freezing and defrosting.
- Cottage pie 4 adult Made 81 days ago Use first
- Chilli con carne 6 adult Made 46 days ago
- Parsnip soup 3 adult Made 19 days ago
- Tikka masala 8 adult Made 2 days ago
- Lentil bolognese 6 child Made 2 days ago
- Lentil bolognese 4 baby Made 2 days ago
An example stash, oldest first.
Eat now
Every evening, Nomstash tells you tonight’s dinner and what to move to the fridge for tomorrow.
Move it before bed and it’s ready to heat when you get in. The Food Standards Agency says “the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight”, which is why the reminder comes the night before.
Forgot to move it? Eat now tells you, and shows what else you could have tonight. The rest of the rules are in our guide to freezing and defrosting.
Kcal and macros for every portion
Nomstash works out the nutrition for each portion from the recipe’s ingredients, so you can see what’s in a dinner before it comes out of the freezer.
424 kcal P 35g C 26g F 18g
From the chilli con carne recipe in Nomstash today.
Recipe apps give you recipes. Nomstash gives you dinners already made.
A recipe app helps you cook tonight. Nomstash is for all the nights you’d rather not: the plan, the shop, the cook day, the labels and the freezer are one job, done once.
It isn’t a meal kit either. Nothing comes in a box. You shop where you already shop, cook in your own kitchen and eat what you chose.
Questions people ask first
Read all the questions people ask before their first cook day
What does Nomstash cost?
Nothing during founding access. A paid plan will come later, and nobody pays anything without being told the price first. Here’s what founding access includes.
Do I need to have batch cooked before?
No. Start with two or three dishes on one cook day. Every recipe is scaled to the portions you plan, and cook mode takes you through each method a step at a time. Our guide on how to plan a cook day is a good place to start.
Can I plan for children as well as adults?
Yes. You set the portions for each person, and Nomstash counts adult, child and baby portions separately, in the plan and in the freezer. Three child portions are never counted as three dinners for an adult.
One cook day. A freezer full of dinners.
Free during founding access. Pick the dishes and Nomstash plans the rest, down to the labels.