Take the Wholegrain Goodness challenge: testers can win £250 – NON TESTERS: chance to win £150. NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Try something different for your new year's resolutions this year - take part in the WholegrainGoodness.com challenge and be in with a chance of winning supermarket vouchers worth up to £250.

Here's what WholegrainGoodness.com, a not-for-profit campaign aiming to inspire people to eat more wholegrain, say about the challenge: "Most of us know it's important to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg every day, but did you know you should be eating more wholegrain to keep you healthy too? Nutritionists encourage eating at least three servings of wholegrain a day. But despite the nutritional benefits, national surveys show that 95% of adults don't do this, and almost a third don't eat any at all. So take part in our wholegrain challenge to help us inspire mums to get more nutritious wholegrain into their family's diet and we'll enter you into a prize draw"

The challenge is to include wholegrain in at least ONE meal or snack for the family per day for two weeks and then to add your feedback here by Sunday 9th February to be entered into a prize draw.

• "Official testers" (already selected) can win a £250 supermarket voucher of their choice

• "Non-official testers" (open to all UK MNers with at least one child aged between 2 and 16 living at home) can win a £150 supermarket voucher of their choice

You can use the variety of wholegrain foods available, such as wholegrain breads, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, flour and even popcorn. And feel free to take part if you and your family already eat wholegrains. Visit WholegrainGoodness.com if you need help finding out what wholegrains are and to see what a serving of wholegrain looks like, as well as to get recipe ideas for inspiration and some top tips. If you have any further questions about wholegrain, ask their independent registered dietitian or go to the wholegrain FAQs (frequently asked questions) page, which we'll keep updating. You can get a free recipe booklet and sign up to their e-news alerts too.

Please add your feedback here on the following:

~ Let us know what you think of wholegrains and if you knew about the benefits already or not

~ Have you tried out any WholegrainGoodness.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?

~ Please add any other comments, recipes, tips or ideas you have too - we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge

Thanks
MNHQ

Please note: comments made on this thread may be reproduced by Wholegrain Goodness (AHDB)

Week two just gong too well really: nobody notices and it already automatic to buy the wholegrain option!

We made naan with whole flour yesterday and a curry with lentils and potatoes still in their peel, the children pronounced it delicious. I think we now get 3 - 4 servings a day with no extra on bill. fabulous.

I always eat wholegrain bread and buy half and half for the kids and husband can't quite fully convert them yet. At breakfast it's porridge oats all round and even got the baby eating it. I have a popcorn maker and make lovely fresh popcorn as a fun energy snack. Wholemeal is best for me as I suffer from bloating with white bread and it really helps my digestive system.

We just had spaghetti, brown of course! Pudding is natural yoghurt, honey and fruit with wholemeal drop scones. Doing well on this so far!

Sanctmoany I'd love the recipe for wholemeal naan please!

Am cooking prawn karahi with brown basmati tonight but have to confess to shop bought white naan. If I could buy brown I would but hadn't even thought about making my own.

popcorn maker? don't you just put the seeds in a pan with a little oil for 5 mins?

I have made wholemealgoodness leftovers bake today. the butternutsquash risotto, with chopped toms, butterbeans, broccoli, cauli, sweetcorn, peas sesame seeds, sunflower seeds stirred in, oat and chickpea dumpling mix over the top, topping that with mushooms and cheese. dd is eting it, I have ledy finished mine. the boy is sleep and has yet to try it.

This is now becoming a way of life. Bought some bread today and without a second thought I got wholemeal. The change has been accepted easily by everyone.
Last week when I made spaghetti bolognaise, to ease them all in I used half wholemeal spaghetti and half ordinary spaghetti. We have had it again to night and this time I used all wholemeal spaghetti and no one noticed.
Made some flapjack this week, using oats and that has been really popular, I have had a request for more from my son.
I am really pleased with how this project is working out for my family, looking forward to continuing with it.

I second what polly says about it becoming a way of life. I found myself automatically putting some wholewheat flour into my pastry this afternoon.

Quite tempted by bubble's scones. Might make some with the children tomorrow.

We did the wholegrain challenge this time last year and it really kick started my family into eating more healthy versions of snacks especially. we now eat wholegrain rice and pastas and also more pulses which I tend to throw into stews and curries etc. My ds used to suffer from occasional constipation and that has now gone thanks to more roughage in his diet. We are exploring the recipes on the website this week and my dS has had unsweetened home made popcorn for a snack and loves it.

We really are on a roll now with the wholegrain challenge and have changed our diets to include wholegrain.
This is how we have got on...

Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 9

Breakfast
The twins are enjoying the Shreddies with bananas for their breakfasts.
Joseph had multigrain boulders and hubby had oats.

Lunch
The twins enjoyed haggis yet again with chicken and potatoes.
Hubby took to work his homemade wholemeal sandwiches.
I also had a wholemeal sandwich.

Dinner
I made one of our favourites this evening. I made tuna pasta bake but changed our usual white pasta for the brown wholegrain pasta. We have been enjoying the extra flavour that the brown wholemeal pasta brings to the dishes and are looking at making this a permanent change to our diets!
The twins enjoyed a wholegrain serving with their wholemeal egg sandwiches!

Snacks
I have made some wholemeal banana and oat muffins. Joseph enjoyed one when he got home from school.

Day 9 - Results

Twins - 3 wholegrain servings
Joseph - 3 wholegrain servings
Hubby - 3 wholegrain servings
Me - 2 wholegrain servings

Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 10

Breakfast
The twins are enjoying the Shreddies with bananas for their breakfasts.
Joseph had multigrain boulders and hubby had oats.
I have some of my fruit, hazelnut and oat flapjack.

Lunch
The twins loved the wholegrain tuna pasta bake for their lunch!
The hubby had his usual wholemeal sandwich and a banana and oat muffin.
I also had a wholemeal sandwich.

Dinner
I made a meat and vegetable pie for dinner with a wholemeal pastry. Joseph has told me that he actually prefers the wholemeal pastry to regular white flour pastry. I tend to agree with his too! The wholemeal flour just adds more flavour and texture to the pastry.
The twins had beans on wholemeal toast.

Day 10 - Results

Twins - 3 wholegrain servings
Joseph - 2 wholegrain servings
Hubby - 4 wholegrain servings
Me - 3 wholegrain servings

Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Days 9 & 10

Here is the recipe for my delicious banana and oat cakes using wholemeal flour
Hijacked By Twins Banana and Oat Cakes

It is actually easy to just make the change. No one in my house has grumbled about switching..we did used to eat both, but have bought nothing white in two weeks so now have just switched completely.

We already eat wholegrain bread, pasta and others thing. You need to cook it bit longer, bur they taste better and are so much healthy.

Baked Thai salmon with wholewheat noodles & stir fry tonight. Am adding some cashew nuts & seeds to the str fry.

Lunch was left over lentil shepherds pie ( with hidden oats ) & breakfast was oat bran & blueberry muffin & boiled egg with whole wheat toast.

Still haven't had chance to make cookies or a cake. Have some time tomorrow so will try.

I made toad in the hole with whole grain flour yesterday & always use it for baking

I feel it's a healthier choice for our family

Non Tester

We already eat brown rice, quinoa and use rapeseed oil. Myself and DH will eat brown pasta and whole grain bread but the DCs still are not keen even though I keep giving it to them

I will incorporate more whole grains into our diet by having brown wraps and DCs eating 50/50 bread.

Tester here. We spent our voucher on oats, wholegrain bread and wraps, a box of cereal, oatcakes, and some brown rice.

~ Let us know what you think of wholegrains and if you knew about the benefits already or not

I realised that we actually eat more wholegrains that I thought we did, although we've been eating more for this challenge. I didn't realise all the benefits until I started this challenge and read the WholegraonGoodness.com website.

~ Have you tried out any WholegrainGoodness.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?

Going to try the quinoa patties this weekend, to use up the packet of quinoa left over from weaning! Also going to try the cheese scone tear and share, although I don't think that's part of the wholegrain campaign. Will report how we got on over the weekend.

~ Please add any other comments, recipes, tips or ideas you have too - we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge

Trying porridge for breakfast has been a revelation with the kids. Didn't think they would like it, but they love it in this cold weather, and mix in some banana, golden syrup , cinnamon or raisins to sweeten. It seems to fill them up better than cereal or toast, they say they're not feeling the need for a mid-morning snack any more. And they love the oatcakes as a quick after-school snack before tea. I think we're all feeling more aware of what we eat, and we'll definitely continue with the oatcakes and porridge. The brown rice didn't go down so well with the kids, but the second time I stirred in some grated cheese and half-fat creme fraiche, and they have asked for 'sticky cheesy rice' again.

today i made the cheesy scones with my 2 year old, big hit! bearing in mind what pantsinwash had said i double the amount of cheese and everyone is very happy with the result. took about twice as long to to bake then.

spelt flour (which i assume is wholegrain) turns out to be great for baking your own breadsticks.

Wholemeal pasta was good - takes longer to cook but actually feels good knowing it is a healthy option (baby girl was eating it raw though before i cooked it!!)

We would definitely keep eating wholegrain cous cous and quinoa. They made a fab substitute for potatoes.

Although it has been a bit confusing still trying to check what exactly is wholegrain (i did have to pop over to the wholegrain website to double check some things) - actually eating the wholegrains has been great. The whole family have been happy eating everything and haven't refused any food.

As a minimum wholegrain cereals and wholegrain bread is going to be a must from now on and other foods added to our diet too following this challenge.

We tried wholemeal wraps yesterday but none of us liked them - they were very dry and tasted very "strong". This is quite disappointing as all the other wholemeal things we have eaten we have liked. Maybe we need to try some other brands.

Supermarket own brand Shreddies are my daughter's favourite cereal but she also likes "hot oat cereal" (supermarket own brand Ready Brek) and own brand Weetabix. I don't eat breakfast all that often but if I do I like Shreddies and Weetabix too and sometimes have porridge made with water and raisins in the microwave and then soya milk on top.

Today we had soup and wholemeal toast for lunch and wholemeal pasta with homemade tomato sauce, veg and vegan sausages.

We're not keen on the wraps but if you use them to make quesadillas (sp) the cheese and tomato filling makes them less dry. You just put salsa and cheese between 2 wraps and fry for a few minutes. Serve in triangles with as bit of salad. my kids love them and didn't notice the change in wraps.

They will also eat the whole meal wraps smothered in Nutella but that is probably defeating the purpose of the switch.

I'm quite surprised just how many wholegrain things we were eating before the challenge - wholemeal bread, lots of oats in bread, porridge, muffins etc. We occasionally had wholemeal pasta/brown rice but we are having it a lot more now.

We are nearly at the end of our two week wholegrain goodness challenge.
This really has become a change that we will be sticking to. Even my hubby has automatically gone from wholegrain alternatives when he was out shopping!
We are loving the new flavours that the wholegrain alternatives are bringing to our meals. However we haven't really noticed any of the health benefits, I have noticed that I have not felt as bloated and that's about it!
But I am sure that it is doing us good!

Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 11

Breakfasts
Everybody had their usual breakfasts and are certainly enjoying the wholegrain cereals!

Lunch
The twins and I had a finger food lunch of cheese on wholemeal toast and wholemeal Sunbites.
Hubby took his wholemeal sandwiches and a banana and oat wholemeal cake.

Dinner
Last night I made a delicious chunky vegetable spaghetti bolognese served with organic wholegrain spaghetti. We all enjoyed this for our dinner and love the added flavours that the wholegrain spaghetti gives!

Snacks
Joseph had a bag of wholegrain Sunbites for his after school snack.

Day 11 - Results

Twins - 4 wholegrain servings
Joseph - 3 wholegrain servings
Hubby - 4 wholegrain servings
Me - 3 wholegrain servings

Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 11

We are nearly at the end of our two week wholegrain goodness challenge.
This really has become a change that we will be sticking to. Even my hubby has automatically gone from wholegrain alternatives when he was out shopping!
We are loving the new flavours that the wholegrain alternatives are bringing to our meals. However we haven't really noticed any of the health benefits, I have noticed that I have not felt as bloated and that's about it!
But I am sure that it is doing us good!

Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 11

Breakfasts
Everybody had their usual breakfasts and are certainly enjoying the wholegrain cereals!

Lunch
The twins and I had a finger food lunch of cheese on wholemeal toast and wholemeal Sunbites.
Hubby took his wholemeal sandwiches and a banana and oat wholemeal cake.

Dinner
Last night I made a delicious chunky vegetable spaghetti bolognese served with organic wholegrain spaghetti. We all enjoyed this for our dinner and love the added flavours that the wholegrain spaghetti gives!

Snacks
Joseph had a bag of wholegrain Sunbites for his after school snack.

Day 11 - Results

Twins - 4 wholegrain servings
Joseph - 3 wholegrain servings
Hubby - 4 wholegrain servings
Me - 3 wholegrain servings

Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 11

Well, so far so good. I haven't been able to update as much as I would have liked to due to things going on, but I will let you know asap how things have been going. My favourite thing so far has been wholegrain rice in boil in the bag portions, used them to have a lovely seafood rice thingie, which I will put the recipe on for when I decipher my scribbles, it was a bit as you go along. Not as hard as you might think to eat plenty of wholegrain things in your diet.