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

[DowntonTrout]

Any thoughts on the new Belvita breakfast biscuits?

I bought some to try as I struggle to eat first thing and usually have "breakfast" mid morning. I have crunchy oats ones and they say 40% whole grain. Is there any value in these at all? They taste quite sweet.

[Squiglettsmummy2bx]

Home popped popcorn was a hit & everyone was surprised that it was a healthy option.
Brown rice fell flat, even I found it too chewy & just not nice.
Going to make some wholemeal muffins so will report back later how they went down.

[StellaMarie]

Thanks for the Sainsbury's voucher, I went shopping at the weekend and bought wholewheat spaghetti, penne, rice, wraps, oats and rapeseed oil and felt very healthy going through the checkout!

So far we've had the spaghetti with a tomato and roasted veg sauce - went down well with everyone.
Brown rice which I used to make a kedgeree, it took longer to make but still tasted good.
Tonight is enchiladas with wholemeal wraps - I am hopeful that these will work well too.

I love oats but do not like porridge so I'll be using them in the other recipes on the website. I like the sound of the Cheese, Tomato and Oat flapjacks as I prefer savoury food to sweet anyway.

[THERhubarb]

Thanks Indith. Day 4 and I've just noticed how farty everyone is!

Oh and thanks for the warning that I failed to read on Rapeseed Oil. I go out and buy some feeling all virtuous and inform dh that we shall be shallow frying in that from now on. He hols up the large and very cheap bottle of Crisp 'n' Dry and points out that it is 100% rapeseed oil.

So fellow testers DO NOT BUY SPECIAL RAPESEED OIL JUST GET CRISP N DRY it's so much cheaper.

Here's a question though. We stopped filling up our chip pan with vegetable oil because some years ago there was a link reported between reheating the same vegetable oil and types of cancer. Is this still true? If we leave the oil in the deep fat fryer for months without changing it are we putting ourselves at risk?

Anyway, the wholemeal pittas have gone down well so I shall be buying them from now on. Not so keen on the fresh wholemeal bread I bought though, it's got bits in it.

I'll be making burgers for tea using oats. And getting some air freshener.

[aristocat]

Well today we are having a Veggie Stew from my SC. I have chopped 2 onions, courgette, red pepper, green pepper, aubergine and 3 chillies. Given them a stir and added 1 tsp cumin and 2 tins chopped toms. It is cooking as I type and will be ready in 3-4 hours (hopefully )

Not sure how it will turn out, planning on eating with the brown rice. Depending on the consistency will either throw the rice into the SC or cook it separately and serve together.

[mrsskefton]

Recipe for banana muffins!


Ingredients -
1 medium egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
55g 2oz soft light brown sugar
1 lg very ripe banana (or2sml ones)
55ml (2fl oz) oil (use rapeseed or sunflower)
85g 3oz whole meal flr
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp grand cinnamon
Pinch salt

Method -
Preheat oven gas 4, 180c/200f
Line 2 cupcake tins with 18 cases (or double quantity of mix and line 2 deep muffin trays)
Crack eggs in bowl and add brown sugar, add vanilla extract and beat together until thick
In a seperate bowl mash bananas
Add the bananas to oil and egg mix
Sift on the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Tip in any bran left in the sieve. Stir gently until just combined (don't overstored as it will affect the result)
Spoon into cases to approx 2/3 full, then bake for 12-14 mind until risen and firm.
You can add a slice of banana and sprinkle of Demerara on top too.
Store in airtight box for up to 3 days. Also freeze well!

This is from Annabel Karmel Mummy and Me cookbook.
If you want to make it as a loaf it will take much longer and I suggest a lower oven temp as top might burn before inside is cooked.

[mrsskefton]

So today I've sent daughter to school with whole meal pitta and the leftovers of last nights lamb and quinoa patties! Other daughter not so well today so not eating much:-(

Dinner tonight - Spiced Chicken Tagine (done in slow cooker) with Giant Couscous. Followed by the Date and Walnut cake I'm about to bake (using recipe on the website).

Tomorrow is big challenge: we typically have a curry but hubby doesn't like brown rice, so I've been to waitrose and bought a wild rice mix which I believe to be whole grain. I'm also adding a little barley to it I think. Kids will have their porridge for breakfast and I'm thinking oatcakes at lunch with cream cheese, ham, small salad (with couscous from tonight) and cereal bar.

Interesting point: having had lots of sleep issues lately eldest daughter slept very well last night, post school attitude improved too. Nice always incorporated oats, grains and whole bran but nit as much as past few days - have I found a super cure to my woes?!?!?

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

Hi all - wholegraingoodness.com have asked me to post this - if you've got any queries for them, do get in touch using link below! But do continue to post here too!!

"There are lots of questions posted (we're dying to join in with the chat!) ? if any of your questions have not been answered and you'd like them to be, please do use our Ask the nutritionist tool ? we?d be glad to have a chat and try to help."

[androbbob]

Got some mince to use today so will try the burgers with oats in recipe.

Breakfast is sorted, its the lunches that are hard. Tried the 50/50 bread and they are not keen on it. Tried pitta breads and not keen on it. Tried wraps and not keen on it! Bloomin kids! Both me and DH will happily eat the above, but not the two DC.

Made the biscuits and they were well eaten - sweet stuff is ok. Past was ok mixed half and half.

Not sure what to try for lunches - anyone had success? Not tried oatcakes yet, although I eat them.

[THERhubarb]

androbbob - try the Sunbites snacks from Walkers as they are made with wholegrain.
For lunches I used wholemeal pittas as pizza bases as then the kids don't notice that it's wholemeal.
You could also use wholegrain cereals as a dessert. Just pop some into a container, add some fresh fruit and a dollop of yoghurt and give these to them with their packed lunches. Just don't forget to include a spoon!

At the weekend I'm going to make an apple crumble and I'll try using wholemeal flour and porridge oats in my crumble.

[CheeseStrawWars]

Yesterday's barley thing didn't happen, ran out of time - but did do salted popcorn for "pudding", with which the DC were very chuffed. And it was great from my point of view as they'd already had quite a sugar-heavy day so it was good to be able to get a "pudding" down them that didn't add to that. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that Tesco's salted popcorn has less than 2g salt per 90g bag, so that was good. Though I would rather have made my own popcorn, I couldn't find any unpopped-popping-corn in the shop. The leftovers mysteriously disappeared overnight, so DH is keen on it too.

As an aside, I do find it really hard trying to balance out sugar and salt in the kid's diet - fat's not so much the problem. In the HGCA nutritional breakdown on the recipes, could we have salt and sugar as well as calories and fat? I did see that given on the popcorn recipe page but it's not always on the other recipes.

Today I tried them on rye-bread for breakfast, which got a resounding "yukky" from them both. Can't win 'em all... I really like it, more for me!

[Indith]

Woohoo I made it to Sainsburys! Me and most of the rest of the area I think. Due more snow tomorrow. Urgh.

Anyhoo I have strong wholemeal flour for bread, wholemeal spelt flour, normal wholemeal for general baking, quinoa, bulger wheat and wholemeal pasta.

I think the pasta while be mixed with white pasta. I didn't want to get a huge bag in case the dcs didn't like it (plus the voucher wouldn't have covered it) and so the 1kg bag I did get won't cover the family until the end of next week!

Now then, any suggestions for what to do with the sausages dh got out for dinner tonight?

[SandWitch]

I was not picked to be an official tester but was inspired to try and get more whole grains into our diet.

When I actually looked at what was in the cupboard, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we use more whole grains than I thought...

All of the cereals the kids have seem to be whole grain (Waitrose own brand of Cheerios, Weetabix, Fruit and Fibre)
Bread is 50/50 for the kids and wholemeal for dh (I try not to eat bread)
We have popcorn most weekends (with a DVD on Sunday evenings )

dc have just started joining me with having porridge every morning and really love it.

The 50/50 is a good idea when wholegrain seems too much. I have decided to try white and brown pasta - first meal will be this evening - will let you know how I go!
Same with rice - dc love rice and so will see if they notice the change.

Quick question - I add oatbran and wheatbran to my yoghurts - does this count?

[cinnamongreyhound]

Not only did I forget to take my voucher to tesco today but I also forgot the harissa paste to make my lamb & quinoa patties tonight! Was pleased to find that tesco value vegetable oil is in fact rapeseed oil

[Scrambledchocpancake]

Been going well so far! Dc1 is very open to trying new things and is enjoying her wholemeal option.DC2 however is a bit more fussy. The organic oaty snacks have come in useful once I saw wholegrain written on the box. The mother and toddler group had popcorn as a snack option today so we have fulfilled the challenge again today. Eat up your popcorn babies! Got some strange looks until I explained!!! I was told by a friend that the wholemeal lasagne sheets go down well as they are well disguised. I will try that. Hoping to try a dinner recipe that will be tolerated by the little fusspot!! Also have given the DCs wholegrain breakfast cereal (which they had previously poo pooed) as a dry snack and that has gone down better than expected! All days ticked so far!!

[Scrambledchocpancake]

Oh forgot to ask! Is rapeseed oil wholegrain then or just very good for you?? (confused) doesn't take much to be fair!

[PatTheHammer]

Sausage, bean and savoy cabbage casserole tonight with brown rice (cooked as per instructions and then left with the lid on for a while and it went fairly fluffy).

Was lovely and all eaten up, but not really going to help the wind situation I think...........

For next week I've ordered Lamb mince to make the patties, Pork to make the oaty pork casserole and some more whole grain pasta (its on offer for a quid on Ocado).

DH at a corporate schmoozy thing tomorrow so not sure what to do for dinner. We'll have popcorn as after school snack and I'm tempted to just make some burgers and serve in a wholemeal roll for tea.

[Lilyloo]

Return visit to the supermarket for more bread, picked up some wholemeal pitta breads today, that's for sandwiches for dc tomorrow and we will have the rest with chilli for tea.
We had wholegrain pasta tonight in a pasta bake, enjoyed by everyone. Then treated the dc to popcorn which they were very pleased to find out they could have.
Am going to make some wholewheat cookies this weekend.

[aristocat]

My Veggie Stew was great, a slight change of plan as I cooked wholewheat pasta instead of rice. It was a good choice
TBH there is hardly any difference in the pasta and we will continue to use it after the testing.
One problem that I have is the lack of choice of shapes in wholewheat, it was either Fusili or Penne. Shocking considering there is a choice of about 20 in the white pastas ......


Planning on making the Middle Eastern lamb burgers from the booklet tomorrow!

[MrsKwazii]

Have only managed to scoff homemade hobbies today. They're delicious but the recipe makes loads, not that I'm complaining of course! Have just taken a wholemeal flour banana loaf out of the oven for tomorrow too. Will report back on how dense or not it is.

[MrsKwazii]

HOBNOBS, HOBNOBS, HOBNOBS! Bloody autocorrect.

[broxi3781]

I love whole grains anyway - but my family is less keen. One way I add whole grain to our diet - and keep prices down is place dry porridge oats in the blender to create a flour. I then add this to mince - and it tasts ever so much nicer than plain mince. It can also be mixed with whole grain flour in home made breads giving the breads a lovely grainery taste. It really can not replace wheat flour, and can not be used in all recipes - but it adds flavour to many.

Another whole grain food I really enjoy is a very thing whole wheat pizza base - just follow any basic pizza recipe but use whole grain flour instead. This goes especially well with a tomato, cheese and basil pizza - and if you like spinach as I do - a drop of spinach goes nicely too.

Finally, wheaten soda bread with butter and cheese makes a delightful light meal.

[tully67]

I spent my gift card and used it to buy wholemeal bread ( I usually buy this anyway) and wholewheat spaghetti (usually buy this also). I also bought wholemeal pitta as my boys love pitta but in the past I have always bought white automatically. They ate them and enjoyed them so I think this will be an easy thing to buy in the future. I also bought rapeseed oil to use alternately with olive oil. Again I just automatically buy olive and hadn't really thought about an alternative. I also bought wholemeal flour as lately I have been using white only for bread (used to make 50/50) but as someone mentioned earlier I can use it for banana bread and might try scones (I haven't made them in years!). I also bought quinoa which I did try years ago so am going to make a quinoa salad-type thing this week-end with peppers, garlic etc.

For me the challenge has made me think about how easy it is to incorporate wholegrains into our diet. Some swaps like with pitta bread and oil are easy and in future I am going to try wholewheat pasta and brown rice (I don't really like brown rice but thought I could try 50/50 with white in maybe a rice salad for starters.

I am so glad I took part in the challenge - gift voucher - very nice bonus of course but it also made me think about different ways to add it to the family's meals.

Thanks!

[GentleOtter]

Oat cakes for Burns Night.

8oz medium or fine oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
pudding spoonful of melted butter

Heat oven to 160 deg C, 325 F

Put dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in melted butter and stir in 6 pudding spoonfuls of hot water to make a stiff paste.

Knead the dough and roll out thinly on a floured surface.

Either make a big circle using a plate and cut into triangles or standard rounds with a scone cutter.

Bake for about 25 mins or until golden.

Have these with some haggis, turnip and mashed potato. and whisky