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)

The wholegrain challenge has been easier than I thought.
The only thing that hasn't gone down very well is wholewheat pasta. I will mix it in with normal pasta.

I haven't noticed any physical changes. Health wise, I've been poorly but carried on with healthy eating.
Tried some lovely new recipes and things like buckwheat and giant cous cous - things I'd usually never try or search for recipes for.

Has anyone else noticed they are more....regular?

Enjoyed spending the voucher on wholegrain products. The recipes in the booklet were delicious. I bought: wholegrain rice, pearl barley, wholegrain cereals, Walkers wholegrain sunbites and much more. I baked the seeded cheese scones which were lovely, enjoyed by the whole family. We are more conscious as a family after this trial and try to cut down on white flour, white sugar etc. This has been an enjoyable challenge.

Tonight it is leek croustade. The croustade bit is made with wholegrain flour, oats& seeds. Should have quite a nutty taste.

Tbh I haven't noticed any health differences at all. I've enjoyed the challenge. We already ate quite a few wholegrain products but I've enjoyed the challenge of substituting wholemeal flour & oats into recipes where you wouldn't expect.

Bought some wholegrain giant couscous and really didn't like that. And couldn't find any farro, but apart from those we've enjoyed all the different wholegrain products we've tried.

Still haven't tried any thing sweet, and keep meaning to make a cake but run out of time. Maybe tomorrow!

Even Theimpossibledog is more regular in this house.

(Not in this house, in the park)
:)

Where on earth has the past nearly two weeks gone !
Week 1

Monday 20th January
Breakfast Wholemeal bread and butter, Poached Egg and Bacon
Lunch 50-50 Bagel with Ham and Cream Cheese
Dinner Leftover Roast chicken with broccoli, onion, and brown rice in a piri piri sauce

Tuesday 21st January
Breakfast Cereal and wholemeal toast
Lunch 50-50 bagel with turkey and mayonnaise
Dinner Roast Pork with veg and Roasties

Wednesday 22nd January
Breakfast Cereal and Wholemeal toast
Lunch Wholemeal sandwich with Ham and Coleslaw
Dinner Moroccan Turkey Kofta kebabs with Wholemeal pittas

Thursday 23rd January
Breakfast Yoghurt and Fresh Fruit
Lunch Wholemeal Tortilla wraps with cheese and carrot
Dinner Spaghetti Bolognaise with Wholewheat pasta

Friday 24th January
Breakfast Boiled egg with wholemeal toast
Lunch - Wholemeal rolls with Ham and Cheddar Cheese
Dinner Vegetable Curry and Brown rice

Saturday 25th January
Breakfast Yoghurt and fresh fruit
Lunch Wholemeal Cheese on Toast and Popcorn
Dinner Egg, Chips and Baked Beans with 50-50 bread and butter

Sunday 26th January
Breakfast Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Egg with wholemeal toast(my daughters birthday breakfast)
Lunch Roast dinner with all the trimmings
Dinner Toasted wholemeal pittas with hummus and crudities

Week 2
Monday 27th January
Breakfast Cereal and 50-50 toast
Lunch Turkey and Mayo Wholemeal rolls
Dinner Pasta Carbonara with whole-wheat pasta

Tuesday 28th January
Breakfast Yoghurt and fresh fruit
Lunch Whole-wheat Tortilla wraps with Ham and Cream Cheese
Dinner Oxtail casserole with carrots, potatoes, savoy cabbage and barley mixture

Wednesday 29th January
Breakfast Cereal and wholemeal toast
Lunch Marmite wholemeal sandwiches
Dinner The rest of the Turkey Kofta from last week which I had frozen but made into burgers in a wholemeal roll with Quinoa, Broccoli and Feta cheese salad

Thursday 30th January
Breakfast Cereal and wholemeal toast
Lunch Toasted pittas with hummus and raw carrots
Dinner Whole-wheat Spaghetti with Bolognaise

Friday 31st January
Breakfast Ham and Cheese Whole-wheat Toasted Sandwich
Lunch Soup with a wholemeal roll
Dinner Homemade Rogan Josh with brown rice

Saturday 1st February
Breakfast Boiled Egg and wholemeal soldiers
Lunch Out with friends
Dinner Wholemeal Tortilla wraps with Ham and Cream cheese

Sunday 2nd February
Breakfast Wholemeal toast and Poached egg
Lunch Roast lunch with all the trimmings
Dinner Toasted pittas with Hummus and coleslaw

I have posted some of the photographs of the meals I did remember to take. With the voucher I bought, wholemeal pittas, wholemeal tortilla wraps, wholemeal loaf, barley mixture, brown rice and wholemeal pasta. I couldn't shop in my usual Tesco branch I had to go to a larger one as the smaller one did not stock any wholemeal products except for sliced bread. I also noticed that it was more expensive than buying white. My DD embraced it more than I thought she would, I think it because I told her it was part of a challenge. I didn't mind the wholemeal pasta or rice, infact with the rice I couldn't actually tell the difference with the curry. The only disadvantage would be having to visit the larger Tesco to buy the products

Made the cheesy scones yum yum. Didn't realise oatcakes are whole grain doh so been having those with cheese instead of cream crackers for the kids snacks. I'm enjoying this challenge, made me relook at what we eat and even though I knew brown bread, pasta etc are better than white, this challenge has put me back on the straight and narrow. The whole family is enjoying the food and hopefully it's doing us some good health wise

First post about this, sorry for the delay, looks like eating more wholegrains doesn't improve your memory as I've been planning to post all week!

As a family I'd say I am more interested in eating more wholegrains, my husband is aware of benefits but much prefers white food items and this preference may have rubbed off on the children. This challenge has made my husband and oldest child more aware of eating more of it.

I stocked up on wholegrain pasta twists/spaghetti/basmati rice/rolls/red rice etc, plus more of our trusty favourites, Milton savoury crackers (delicious) and cheese oatcakes.

Breakfast is the easiest time in our house for us all to eat wholegrain as many of our cereals of choice have it in anyway, such as special k and cheerios.

I haven't been on the website so far to hunt for recipes, to be honest I've just been taking the simpler option of changing from white to brown in the rice/pasta/bread parts of our regular meals.

today was our lucky day as apparently our local waitrose needed to get rid of all their wholegrain stuff so we got 2 loafs of bread, 5 bagels and 4 rolls for 2 quid in total, yay!

Hopezibah spelt is a grain just like barley or wheat, so it can be white spelt flour or wholegrain, i believe.

Good to refocus on healthy options over the last couple of weeks. I think I prefer whole meal toast to white and other wholegrain options seem an easy enough choice. I just can't manage to change pasta!

I am making whole grain bread and my fussy children are eating it - got to be good.

At the risk of sounding dippy, which cereals other than Weetabix and shreddies are wholegrain? Oh and porridge, obviously. Thanks.

Wholegrain pizza today...

Official tester here - Sorry for the tardy reply! Been having phone problems... Anyway...

~ Let us know what you think of wholegrains and if you knew about the benefits already or not
I've always been aware of the benefits of whole grain, and eating less processed food in general (I have PCOS, and know this is the way I should be eating) but sometimes I get a lot a bit slack.

~ Have you tried out any WholegrainGoodness.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?
I tried the oat and chickpea dumplings (falafels really) which were nice. I've not really though about trying oats in non-breakfast food before, but will do so again. I've been trying out other recipes from books I already have, utilising pearl barley, quinoa - have really enjoyed 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
I've tried out quite a few new recipes - pearl barley risotto for example, but I've mostly concentrated on making simple swaps from white to whole grain - we've bought whole grain bagels, pittas, bread and brown rice. I've been having porridge for breakfast, rather than my usual toast and I've enjoyed it, it's kept me nice and full.
Next challenge is swapping pasta for the whole wheat stuff - will report back - I'm cursed with fussy children.

I have a little munchkin who loves helping out in the kitchen and so I try to make sure that we 'cook' healthy yummy food together most days so that she is more engaged with the food put in front of her and will hopefully grow up with good knowledge and skills in the kitchen so that she can keep eating healthily for life.

We've always leaned towards wholegrains - shredded wheat/weetabix/home made wholegrain bread or rolls for breakfast, wild rice, quinoa, cous cous or brown pasta to accompany lentils, beans or other pulses as main meals and rice cakes or oatcakes for snacks but thanks so much for your recipie suggestion bit. Lots of great ideas in there. The savoury flapjacks and the baked peaches were divine and my daughterloved making popcorn and the whacky flavourings were brilliant - Honey & Mixed Spice, Smokey and Cinnamon sugar. They went down a treat.

Official tester checking in again after week 2 is nearly complete. I'll be carrying on with the whole grain swaps I've made. Still enjoying my shredded wheat for breakfast and feeling the benefit since I didn't have breakfast before the challenge. I have cut out my mid-morning chocolate fix.

Still using wholemeal bread for sandwiches and toast. Substituted the white rice for brown successfully and tonight I'll be making a pasta bake with whole wheat pasta.
I've enjoyed the challenge, it's early days but I do feel a bit more energetic and less bloated. The challenge has also made me more aware of what I'm chucking in the trolley in the supermarket too - I'm trying to make healthier choices.
Next step will be trying to increase our fruit and veg intake

Pizza with 75% wholegrain flour tonight. Couldn't face completely brown.

Wholegrain going down very well with my 8 year old! More than i could have ever imagined! So much, she asked me to buy more of the wholegrain oats for breakfast as the first box went in days!

She also enjoyed the wholegrain pasta and even remarked 'it tastes just as good, i didn't think it would'! So these two items will definitely become a regular purchase in my household.

I must say, im a lot more 'windier' whether that's the wholegrain or just me, im not sure!

I have been pleasantly surprised by taking part in this challenge. My view of wholegrains has always been that they are quite difficult to digest and a little dry (wholemeal pasta, I'm thinking of you!) That said, I was surprised at how much wholegrain we were already consuming without realising it - breakfast cereal, half/half bread etc.
I spent the voucher on things I wouldn't normally buy and rapeseed oil, wholemeal flour, brown rice and oatcakes were added to my basket.
We have tried to consume at least one portion a day, be it through the Sunbites in the kids' packed lunches or oatcakes as a snack for me. My greatest revelation has been the addition of 50% wholemeal flour to recipes that I have always traditionally used white flour. My family haven't noticed the difference and they are fussy eaters. My next challenge is to persuade them that brown rice is just as nice as white!
I haven't used any of the recipes from the pack but fully intend to!

Chocolate shoes, did the pizza work well with your family?

cantdo yes it did. They both noticed and immediately asked was there wholemeal flour in it ( I guess they've got used to me putting whole grains in everything over the last 2 weeks!). Ds said he preferred white base but still scoffed the lot!

Tomorrow I really will make chocolate cake with wholemeal. Have been promising it for days now. It's the last day of the challenge -I must do it!

Thanks Chocolate. I am doing pizza tomorrow. Will be interesting to see the reaction!

I don't really see tomorrow as the last day- I think we will just carry on. I have bucket loads of quinoa to cook!

Challenge over now, but it's definitely had a lasting effect on us as a family, we now buy the wholewheat loaf or the seeded one for me, rather than the usual boring and tasteless white, I have a lot more wholewheat flour in the store cupboard and use it alongside or instead of my usual white, the Krisprolls are a permanent feature on the shopping list, been loving the wholegrain crackers with cheese, just tastes a lot nicer, we have a lot more wholegrain cereals in the cupboard replacing the sugar-laden unhealthy ones and porridge in the slow cooker remains a favourite, bought a huge packet of brown rice yesterday as we had run out, and bought more brown basmati, which I'd never have done before, trying lots of different things, made noodles today in the slow cooker on low for 3 hours with a bit of cream, bit of seasoned salt, and lots of frozen defrosted spinach, and added some cheese at last minute, mixed in, which went all stringy like it does on pizza, and everyone literally couldn't get enough. It's really satisfying to see how much my family have enjoyed being on this challenge and knowing how much healthier they are eating is also a relief.

So we're more or less at the end of the challenge and I agree it's definitely made a difference to our eating habits. I can see me buying wholewheat pasta as standard from now on, we already ate brown rice and wholgrain bread but now I'm more aware of the benefits I'm inclined to keep it up. I've got into the habit of including wholgrains eg oats where I can when cooking and to choosing things like Sunbites or oatcakes for snacks (although another challenge for us it to cut down on snacking).

I think this has been a really useful exercise and has definitely given our eating habits the kick up the bum they needed :). Thanks Mumsnet and the Wholgrain Goodness people.