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)

We had brown basmati rice for dinner last night. It made me swoon. I'd happily eat that in place of white rice. The DC loved it, so that's staying on the menu. But I need to find somewhere that sells it dry. We bought the expensive sachets, but wouldn't do that for a weekly shop.

So are wholegrain bagels. Not going back to the gloopy white ones.

DC had Sainsbury's own wholegrain sultana bran for a snack last night. then DH joined them, and so did I! Hmm. In the obesity thread there are a lot of people talking about the addictive qualities of grains. Not sure what I believe, but the things we've tested so far are much more popular with the family than I'd have guessed.

Does anyone have any good recipes for wholegrain pasta? That's the one thing on the menu that I'm not looking forward to trying. Memories of really ghastly indigestible brown pasta in the 80s. Hope it's improved since then.

I thought I might do it in a tomato, red onion, mushroom, spinach and mozzarella bake with garlic and herbs. That way its density won't be so obvious. Can't see it working with a light, fresh veg sauce, but would love to be told otherwise.

Today we start our Wholegrain Goodness Challenge with Mumsnet and Wholegrain Goodness.

For the next 2 weeks we will be eating at least one of the recommended three servings of wholegrain a day.
At the weekend I went shopping a stocked up with plenty of wholegrain alternatives.
So this week all of our evening meals will contain at least one serving of wholegrain. I have also baked some wholemeal bread and used rapeseed oil to make it even healthier!
During the week I will be trying some new wholemeal bakes and if I make any pastry I will be using wholemeal flour!
This is what delicious wholegrain dinners we will be enjoying this week!

Week Commencing 20th January 2014

• Beef Steak Strips in a Creamy Mustard Sauce on Wholegrain Rice
  I dry fry the beef steak strips with some red onions, mushrooms and red peppers. Once the meat is cooked through I add some wholegrain mustard followed by some double cream. The beef steak and sauce is served on a bed of wholegrain rice.

• Spaghetti Carbonara with Wholegrain Spaghetti
  This is a lovely, tasty, quick easy meal! I fry up some smoked bacon, garlic and onions. Once cooked through I add the cooked spaghetti, pour over a mixture of eggs, milk and grated cheese. Cook for a couple of minutes and serve. Quick and easy!

• Cottage Pie with Pearl Barley and a Cheesy Oat Topping
  I will make my usual cottage pie mixture with minced beef steak, onions, mushrooms and carrots but will also add some pearl barley. I will be topping the cottage pie this week with mashed sweet potato and finishing it off with an cheesy oat topping that will be grilled.

• Lemon Chicken coated in Oats and Thyme
  I will soak the chicken breasts in the lemon juice then will make an oat and thyme breadcrumb. This will be served with new potatoes and grilled courgettes and peppers

• Beef and Barley Stew
  I love a good slow cooked beef stew and dumplings! So I will be making my usual stew recipes but will add pearl barley. This will be served with wholemeal dumplings!

• Beef and Barley Stew Leftover Pie
  One of the best things about stew is the leftovers the next day! These make a lovely pie which will be with a wholemeal pastry.

I am looking forward to the challenge of adding wholegrain to our diets and trying some new dishes!

wholegrain pasta recipes

any pasta recipe with sauce works.

chicken, courgette, red onion, sweetcorn and mushrooms with white saauce on whole wheat fusilli

stews with broken up wholewheat spagetti added

any tomato based homemade pasta sauce.

Brown basmati rice asda. morrisons and I think tesco.

I have tried wheatbisks for breakfast with 1% milk and chopped up apricots and dates, raisins, milled linseed and sesame seeds.

I've swapped normal biscuits for Nairn's oatcakes with either chocolate chips or ginger. They're also much lower in carbs/sugar than normal biscuits so fit in my diabetic diet.

Last night we had saag paneer served with French Camargue red rice, which is wholegrain. Really interesting flavour and texture, but takes 30 minutes to cook.

Day 1 for us and we started the day with home-made Bircher muesli (oats, hazelnuts soaked in orange juice and milk overnight, then added grated apple) with natural yoghurt. Girls have gone to school with sandwiches made from wholemeal bread (the norm for them anyway) and tonight, planning some sort of vegetable soup with farro in.

i'm just back from sainsbury. i was like a child in a sweet shop, wandering round and chucking stuff into my basket. now we've got

ryvita
oatcakes
red rice
wholewheat pasta
wholewheat muffins (taste testing them as i type)
sunbites (didn't even know they existed)
shreddies

great fun, would have been even better had i remembered to take along the voucher

pollaidh nairns are the food of gods! my son is 2 and is convinced that this is how all biscuits are because i only ever give him these. i didn't find any treats containing wholegrain so i've decided to make welsh cakes later on, if i manage, using wholewheat flour. i hope i won't offend any welsh wholegrainers by appropriating such a classic recipe.

We started our challenge as a family on Saturday (18th), bought some ingredients we hadn't tried before (I'm quite embarrassed to admit to that!), such as the brown rice and wholewheat pasta, also got some little snacks such as wholegrain Krisprolls, picked up some grains and oats too. Tried the Krisprolls with lunch on Saturday, and to my surprise, the kids absolutely loved them to the extent that they've asked, almost begged me to include them in their packed lunches today. They have them with a little butter and some half fat cheese I picked up, yesterday they had it with some home-made blueberry jam. Over the weekend I also made "Golden Bread" made with seeds and grains, and that went down a storm, with chicken coated in an oaty/parmesan crumb, served over brown rice with some veggies mixed in and a chicken sauce made from condensed chicken soup. Today's supper is pork and pearl barley casserole which is currently cooking, and smells delicious, and I made mushroom soup (something for the bread to mop up). Have been surprised how easy it has been to convert from white bread, rice etc and give the family new flavours, and they haven't just accepted it, they've really loved it, and I'm happy that they're eating healthier food.

Now I want red rice. I love red rice. Wish we'd bought some, but I let DC choose, so they would agree to try everything!

I am doing the challenge (thanks for the voucher). I am aiming to increase the wholegrain we eat but we already eat a fair amount. We all have wholegrain for breakfast (either as porridge, bran flakes or toast) and all the bread is wholemeal. I try to buy wholemeal pasta (generally when there is an offer on) and then mix it half and half with normal pasta. Reading all the comments so far I think I will try wild rice, oatcakes and maybe pearl barley in our meals next.

Started today - bought some wholegrain rice for our take on a bacon and pea risotto tonight, and have bought wholegrain flour for pizza base for tomorrow. Sticking to putting into the evening meal each day to encourage discussion and comparison with the DS1 and DS2 as we go along, and so they can feed back on lunchtimes, as we have stocked up on wholegrain pitta and bread for lunchboxes. Alternating humus and bread fingers and filled pitta this week, as they aren't big sandwich eaters. Littlest one is a big fan of grainy bread anyway, it will be a bonus if we convince the almost-teenager to be as enthusiastic (or at least recognise why we are giving it a go and be more willing to accept it later on).

Thankyou for the voucher and recipe book :)

I'm collecting my shopping today. Our meal plan for this week is:

Monday: Oat-topped cod (changed from the mackerel in the recipe book as my local supermarket doesn't stock it)

Tuesday: Burritos with wholewheat tortillas

Wednesday: Bacon, mustard and potato salad. This wasn't specifically wholegrain but I've bought a pack of wheatgerm from Holland & Barrett to stir into the dressing.

Thursday: Middle-Eastern lamb and quinoa patties in wholegrain baps

Friday: home-made pizzas made with wholegrain flour

Saturday: bacon, tomato & avocado sandwiches made with wholegrain bread

Sunday: wholewheat pasta with home-made tomato sauce

I've also picked up some wholegrain cereals and porridge for breakfast (we buy these anyway), wholegrain seeded rolls for packed lunches and some wholegrain snacks: rice cakes, gingerbread men and breadsticks.

Stocked up on things on the weekend - couscous and giant couscous cook, brown and wild rice, quinoa, brown pasta, brown bread and porridge.
I couldn't find buckwheat - I have some recipes I want to try with it so will look elsewhere.

Breakfast was fine. No complaints. Will see how couscous goes down later as they haven't had that for a while.

We started the challenge today,Over the next two weeks I would keep you all posted how we are getting on.

With the end of festive month , no holidays in sight and ongoing struggle to keep up with the new year`s resolution January is undeniebley the toughest month of the year .Thanks for the wholegrain challenge it gives a motivation to make a miserable month better by healthy eating.

I usually include wholegrain in my daily diet ,the toughest part is to make my fussy eating five year old and thirty five year old(my husband)incorporate the whole grain in the diet.
My first purchase for the challenge is a wholegrain cereal fortified with vitamin D which I trade in for breakfast today and worked out well.Lets` see how it goes on for the next two weeks.I have also replaced my olive oil with rapeseed oil for that added wholegrain zing in my diet.

We started at the weekend and so far it's been going very well. I am trying to integrate wholegrain extras into their diet rather than change it drastically as they are set in their ways (my family is a mix of ASD and NT), but so far we have had zero problems.

I have replaced alll the sweet treats with home made flapjacks to which I have added linseed and oat bran, or home made high fibre / wholewheat cakes- today's lunchbox special was a traybake where I replaced a lot of the flour with oats and oatbran, then added a bag of trailmix, nuts and dried fruit on top. DH had a piece and loved it. We've switched to wholemeal bread (Dh hates it as toast so he isn't having toast, easy!), and I have been keeping skins on and cooking potatoes in ways that suit- they have yet to notice.

Oldest child (14) did groan a little when I menioned we were doing this but I haven't raised it since and he has cheerfully eaten what he has been given. Smallest (5) actually ate a whole meal last night for what will have been the first time ever, and enthused about the potatoes so a massive result!

Have wholewheat flour etc coming in shopping on Wednesday to step up another level.

CuttedUp- this Wales-residing wholegrainer thinks that's a fab idea :)

Must admit I'm quite enjoying this so far - if nothing else it's making me think about what we eat and try some new things. I don't think our main meals are too 'unhealthy' but I've swapped to whole-wheat pasta and brown rice, both of which I like, DH and DD seem happy with those too so that was an easy one. Not sure how I feel about some of the meal ideas which seem to be mainly 'add oats to everything' :) but I might give some of them a try.

It's breakfast, lunches and snacks where I think we could improve. Breakfast is tough as none of us likes porridge. I usually have fruit and yoghurt, DH has bran flakes and wholegrain toast so he's doing well but DD has cereal, fruit and a crumpet or a bagel so I'm going to choose a more wholegrain friendly cereal when that runs out and think I'll try her with wholewheat bagels or crumpets (can you get those?)

She has a roll for lunch (plus other things of course) - she's not keen on brown so I get the 50-50 ones which I hope is a step in the right direction. She also likes tuna pasta salad so I might make her that (with whole-wheat pasta) this week as well.

I've got homemade taboulleh for lunch with homemade baked falafels (and there's some wholewheat flour in those). It's absolutely delicious, better than any sandwich but it's costing me a fortune in herbs - roll on the Spring when I can get back to growing my own!

Actually, cost in general is an issue with this - agree with a PP about the difference in price between value and wholewheat spaghetti. Likewise seeded bread and most other 'healthier' versions.

Anyway, back to lunches - I've also discovered I love oatcakes so they're a nice quick one with Philadelphia and some cherry tomatoes. I also made some cereal bars at the weekend and they are lovely - sort of like flapjacks (which DD is also making at school today by coincidence) but made with honey, seeds and dried fruit. I'm finding it hard to stop eating them - there'll be none left for lunch boxes at this rate! Also remembered that popcorn counts for this so have been doing that for DD which she really enjoys.

Be interesting to see if any of us feels any different after eating this well for a couple of weeks.

Oh yes Thanks very much for the voucher as well :)

Thank you for the voucher. I used it to buy brown basmati rice, wholemeal self raising flour, wholemeal granary bread and some wholemeal pasta. I normally buy wholemeal and/or granary bread so that wasn't anything new.

We had the rice with a veggie chilli last night, followed by banana bread made with 50% wholemeal flour /50% normal. It worked even though that was my change to the recipe. I liked the rice. Almost seemed to have a nutty flavour. It was complained about, but I didn't get an alternative option. We have lots of curries, so I'll do nothing but the brown rice over the next couple of weeks and see if the complaints die down.

I think our breakfasts are pretty healthy. We have porridge, bran flakes or muesli.

Right, I'm off to read the rest of the thread and pick up some tips.

We've started the challenge today - wholegrain cereals for breakfast, brown bread sandwiches and popcorn for lunch and we'll have brown spaghetti with bolognese tonight. To be honest, we moved onto brown rice and pasta a while ago and nearly always have brown bread so when I spend the voucher later this week, I'll be looking for some new ideas of things to incorporate into the weekly meal planning. We've just got a slow cooker so enjoying lots of amazing casseroles, soups and pasta sauces so I'll try and find things that will go in/with that - it's so nice to come home to a cooked meal!

Started 'wholegrain' shopping on Saturday. Thanks for the voucher

I bought brown rice which we had with our usual homemade chicken curry on Saturday. Kids didn't notice any difference and gobbled it down without a fuss. Adults preferred it as it was a nice nutty taste.

On Sunday we had chicken fajitas with fresh pepper, onion, avocado and cheese, but this time we had wholemeal wraps instead of white. Adults absolutely loved the change to wholemeal wraps, but the kids were very unimpressed. However we will persevere with these as they were definitely more tasty that the white ones and weren't as stodgy.

I also bought wholemeal bread with seeds in. DC ate this without any fuss over the weekend as cheese on toast. I prefer this type of bread anyway just have to convince DC to make the change permanently.

Will be trying wholemeal pasta next and looking out for some more wholegrain recipes.

Really enjoying the challenge so far.

We do eat quite a bit of whole grain already, but this was a great opportunity to actually see how much of them we do eat and also a good chance to find some new recipes too.

I love baking bread and instead of just buying white bread flour, I bought wholemeal too and will bake a few gorgeous Irish wheaten loaves.

Breakfast this week will be porridge, wholemeal toast and poached eggs, wholemeal pancakes and weetabix , muesli, breakfast flapjacks, bacon butties with whole meal bread.

Lunches will be wholemeal bagels, wholewheat tortillas, wholemeal sandwiches and my homemade vegetable soup which I always add pearl barley to. I also bought some wholegrain pretzels for snacking.

I have also added some wholegrain into dinner. Chicken fajitas with wholewheat tortillas, sweet and sour pork with wild rice, wholewheat pasta bake, mushroom Risotto with barley, spicy prawns and wholewheat noodles.

There are a few sweet treat recipes that I have bought ingredients for, like banana and cinnamon muffins, so hopefully I can get the time to try those too.

Day 1 and the wholegrain challenge has started in my house. Shredded wheat and Weetabix for breakfast, wholemeal chicken sandwiches for lunch...my 15 year old son will not be impressed as he usually has a white roll but he will get used to it! Whole-wheat breakfast biscuits for me as a snack (yummy) and lasagne for tea using whole-wheat pasta. I'm loving this challenge so far. Thank you for choosing me!

Started early yesterday..got stuck into a delicious loaf of wholewheat bread with walnuts my 2 year old wolfed it down. This is very encouraging as although we already eat brown rice and pasta for some reason I automatically gave him white bread...I suppose I had a preconceived idea that he would not like wholewheat bread....silly really as he loves it! Going to Sainsburys tonight with voucher so will update later with what else is on the cards :)

Oh and thanks very much mumsnet for choosing me as a tester :) xx