NOW CLOSED Wholegrain Goodness challenge: add your feedback here and be in with a chance of winning supermarket vouchers - open to non-'official' testers too - prizes to be won

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

If you're one of the 'official' 50 MNers who are taking part in the Wholegrain Goodness challenge, then this is the feedback/support thread that we'd like you to post on throughout the challenge. Each of the 50 MNers who post their feedback during the challenge will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 supermarket voucher of their choice.

If you're not an 'official' participant but want to take part in the challenge anyway, or just have wholegrain tips and ideas you'd like to share, then please add your comments below. All non-'official' participants who post their thoughts will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 supermarket voucher of their choice.

The challenge is to include wholegrain in at least one meal or snack for your family per day for two weeks, using a variety of wholegrain foods available (e.g. porridge, popcorn, oats etc.). To help, you can visit the Wholegrain Goodness website for their guide to wholegrain, for tips on how to identify wholegrain and for wholegrain recipe ideas.

The challenge starts on Monday (21 Jan) and we hope that participants will post here throughout

Please add your feedback on the following here:

~ Please share any tips and ideas you've discovered while taking part in this challenge e.g. have you found any good ways to encourage your child(ren) to choose wholegrains?

~ Have you discovered any recipes or tasty on-the-go wholegrain snacks that your family really like?

~ Have you tried out any Wholegrain Goodness recipes? How did you and your family find them?

Please add any other comments you have too - we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge.

Thanks
MNHQ

[Blatherskite]

Silly question - Is Oatmeal just porridge oats?

[Blatherskite]

Silly question number 2 - What would Tesco have cracked wheat under? If I type in "cracked wheat" it brings up Ryvitas and I wanted to try this recipe

[cinnamongreyhound]

I'm going to try rapeseed oil too.

Will definitely have a go at the blueberry and oat muffins, we have some blueberries left in the freezer from our picking at the end of summer :)

We had some lovely little wholemeal rolls for lunch today, just big enough for the ds's, although ds2 isn't well and didn't eat a lot. He did wolf down his breakfast of porridge this morning.

[aristocat]

Forgot to mention before that I already use rapeseed and corn oil. Whole grain today will be the pasta - just exchanging them for the white variety which we usually have.

[Blatherskite]

Well, wholemeal tortillas with tonight's Fajitas got no more than a raised eyebrow! DS ate 2. In fact, they were so popular that there's none left for DH when he gets in

[Grockle]

Weetabix for breakfast and DS had another wholemeal roll. He's really fussy about bread but actually like the little wholemeal rolls from M&S so I stocked up on them and have some in the freezer.

Today a friend gave me wholegrain rice crispies... not sure what they'll taste like but I'm going to test them for my breakfast.

Can you use rapeseed oil instead of olive oil? I have some veg oil but am not sure what exactly is in it. I will investigate. I notice my question about it being GM wasn't answered so I guess it probably is.

[PatTheHammer]

Well DH and I tried the 'Oat topped Mackerel' tonight but with Basa fish fillets instead of Mackerel. I also didn't have any chives (mine are crushed under about 6 inches of snow) and I added some fennel seeds.
It was a really tasty topping, kind of like a savoury flapjack!

All of us had wholemeal for breakfast as usual (porridge/weetabix/wholemeal toast) and had wholemeal rolls at lunch except DS who had cottage pie at nursery.

I think children can have too much whole grain, especially young kids. I also remember there being info on how much soluble/insoluble fibre they should have, can't remember how much it is!
Don't think there is a problem with adults except that DH and I have both noticed a bit more production in the wind department .

[Indith]

Ooooh Pat I'm glad you said about the wind. This week I have been farting loads and it stinks. I wonder if it is the wholegrain or just something else.

[florencebabyjo]

Hi, Day 3 and the plan is going surprisingly well! Made packed lunches this morning with wholegrain bread topped with seeds and have had no complaints from the kids so far. Amazing really as mine love their soft white rolls, but this has been easier than I thought. Oaty flapjacks went down a treat and vegetable soup with pearl barley was also a hit, although little bits of leek were left behind!
Tomorrow will make salmon and haddock fish cakes rolled in quinoa and wholemeal flour. Will also make a wholemeal fruit cake, but a bit worried it won't rise as much as normal. We'll see, but all going well so far.

[PatTheHammer]

Well Indith, I was tring to be subtle......but since you put it so concisely

[florencebabyjo]

Hi, do you know where the wholewheat rice crispies come from, I would love to get some.

[Indith]

Open and honest I am

[DowntonTrout]

Did savoury rice tonight. Half brown/white rice, onions, mushrooms, sweetcorn, bacon, peas and tomato purée. Cooked the brown 10 mins longer than the white. The tomato purée hid the fact that it was brown rice and no one noticed. I could tell that it was "chewier" than normal, but that's just because I know.

I also think that whole grain shouldn't have to mean virtuous, ie no butter etc. it's a small step to introduce whole grains for one meal a day but going the whole hog and cutting out butter/replacing with rapeseed oil is too much at once and likely to put people off.

[Grockle]

Florence, I'm not sure - I'll have a look at the brand in the morning & will report back.

[Grockle]

Florence, it's this one.

[Grockle]

Sorry, from Waitrose.

[GiraffesMum]

Well we had the meatballs and spaghetti (from the website) for tea tonight and DD1 said the spaghetti was 'very yummy' - no one clocked it wasn't the normal white spaghetti so I shall be using that again. Now going to try wholewheat pasta too and see how that goes.

Also made the tomato and wholemeal bread soup from the website and that went down well too.

Have packed homemade 50:50 bread for packed lunches tomorrow (100% brown hasn't gone down well with the DDs) so will see if they will eat that. Also planning on making the fruity oatcakes tomorrow so will report back.

[Lilyloo]

We had wholemeal toast for breakfast this morning, ds and dp moaned. Dp is adamant he doesn't like wholemeal bread so going to try the 50/50. This was why we had reverted to white so am determined not to do that after this challenge.
The dc had flapjacks in their lunchboxes which went down well. I picked some ryvitas today. We all like them anyway and often buy them in the regular shop. Will pop them in pack lunches tom.
We had curry for tea with brown rice, the dc weren't sure about this but I am loving how much tastier everything is.
I did eat a lot more wholegrain pre dc but tend to just eat what the majority choose so this challenge has made me determined to stick to eating more things I enjoy.
Am browsing the recipes for something nice to cook this weekend.

[florencebabyjo]

That's great thanks, will try anything to get little one to move away from the refined stuff. Will try tomorrow x

[WhatWouldGrandmaDo]

One of the recipes in the leaflet seemed to count wholegrain mustard... So I stirred some through the mash with sausages tonight. Though I'm not sure it does count! Still we all had wholegrain cereal at breakfast and rolls for lunch.

[mrsskefton]

So far: kids often have a gluten free cereal (albeit whole maize and rice) as one has IBS but have got them on Ready Brek with some fruit in which they love. Their lunches this week have included Hovis Wholemeal loaf, Jordans Breakfast Bars (bought 3 varieties - Maple & Pecan, Cranberry & Raspberry and Fruity & Nut) which they think are fab! We've also bought Snack A Jack Jumbo Rice cakes which are whole grain rice (albeit small quantities but some better than none), wholemeal pittas, mixed seeds, Nairn cheese oatcakes, quinoa, bulgar wheat, giant couscous, rapeseed oil, popcorn, oats, polenta, bran flakes. This did come to more than the £10 voucher but I figured I was doing a food shop and would try the new things and keep fingers crossed!

Food plan:
Breakfast either porridge/bran flakes/doves farm cereal/oatcakes with cheese and ham.
Lunch: rice cakes/oat cakes with varying toppings or dips, quinoa or couscous salad/hovis wholemeal bread sandwiches, cheese share and tear scones (in the recipe book), cheese tomato & oat muffins, wholemeal pittas with houmous and veg sticks,
Dinner: middle eastern burgers with quinoa (in the recipe book), veg soup with lentils, oaty fishcakes/chicken goujons, polenta coated chicken,
Snacks: Raspberry & Lemon Polenta Cake (making tomorrow), Rice Cakes, Popcorn, Seeds, Oatcakes, Jordans Cereal Bars, flapjacks, fruit cinnamon oatcakes (wholegraingoodness.hgca.com/recipes/fruity-cinnamon-oatcakes.aspx)

If I do anything differently I will repost. I will also post at the end of the week to let you know how week 1 has gone. If anyone makes the burgers I'd recommend adding finely chopped onion, garlic, some seasoning, coriander and extra tomato puree as I found them a little bland (as did my husband) - I had added some of that but not the coriander which I feel would've made a significant difference. I'd also slightly reduce the amount of quinoa as I found they fell apart as they cooked. Having said that we will be having these again, we had 2 burgers in a pitta, I didn't use tzatziki either as had some Be Good To Yourself Greek Style Yoghurt to which I added some finely chopped garlic - delicious.

I'm so glad I'm doing this as after Christmas, get back on the healthy eating again! Cheers

[mrsskefton]

florencebabyjo - I cook a banana muffin recipe that requires wholemeal flour, they are gorgeous and you do not notice the difference in the flour at all. I do buy good quality flour as have tried a few - in fact the last batch I made were also for a gluten intolerant friend so I used Doves Farm flour and they were still yummy!

[Blatherskite]

Can you post the recipe MrsS? They sound good

[MrsKwazii]

Brown rice with chillis here tonight. Dd ate some of it, MrK ate it all and said it was Ok but a bit 'worthy'. It takes so much longer to cook but I was ok timewise today. It's not a quick dinner option really though.

[Lesbeadiva]

I made a carrot cake using whole grain flour. I was fab! It looked darker and richer and everyone loved it. I think I can switch flours quite easily for a lot of baking. Not so much healthy eating though!

We have also made our own tortillas with the flour and had chicken wraps. So far so good. My kids eat pretty much everything so no complaints so far at all. They were a fan of the spaghetti too!