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)

[woodrunner]

BlackeyedSusan thanks for those recipes for pasta.
Cambridge - try your DC with wholewheat bagels (Waitrose own or NY Bagel company both do them) DS2 was really amazed how much he liked them.
I had no idea that Weetabix was wholegrain! Is Oatabix too? or have they stopped making those?

I recommend Dorset Cereals ginger or raspberry porridges for wholegrain breakfast. Delicious, made with oats and barley, only about 240 cals and fill you up all morning.

[Cammelia]

I have bought wholegrain bread, pasta, rice and breakfast cereal. Dh takes sandwiches to work most days so I have made his sandwiches using the wholegrain bread. We do use wholegrain bread regularly anyway but he also likes white bread. I have given dd wholegrain toast at breakfast , she likes the taste (and knows it is healthier) but also likes white toast. I generally only eat wholegrain toast or bread because I believe it to be a much healthier option.

[JS06]

At the very start of our challenge so will feed back in the coming days. Just wondered if this link would be useful for people as I've had a couple of Martha Stewart emails in the last couple of days with relevant wholegrain recipes and suggestions -www.marthastewart.com/274472/healthy-and-delicious-whole-grains?xsc=eml_msl_2014_01_20_template

Really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

[kirstyphillipsonlowe]

My blog posts to date are
Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Challenge
Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Weekly Meal Plan

[CambridgeBlue]

Thanks woodrunner - I'll have a look for those :)

[daisydaisy11]

non tester.
I'm not so keen on wholegrain bread as I find most varieties get a bit dry on toasting. However, I really like it in the sandwich toaster when buttered before. I'm now trying brown rice instead of white too.

[csmony]

Have made a delicious home made chicken curry which I am going to serve with brown rice for dinner.It really tastes yummy

[Willemdefoeismine]

I've gone on the wholegrain challenge after having a scarily high cholesterol reading - I am now trying to bring about immediate change to the family's diet. Curiously I religiously followed a wholegrain diet as a student - not sure at what point I ceased to be so virtuous! Anyway, the children have adapted remarkably well to the brown rice and wholemeal pasta...no fuss whatsover - and I'm enjoying eating them more......

It's only the beginning though....

What I am noticing though is that typically wholegrain foods (with the exception of oats which are very cheap) are more expensive....

[chocolateshoes]

I haven't had chance to go shopping yet but made a start by making wholegrain blueberry muffins for ds's breakfast. I have been making muffins with blended oats for a while now and find they freeze brilliantly and then 20 seconds in the microwave and they're ready. I'd like to use oats in cooking more (apart from flapjack!) but don't find it easy as I hate porridge. As with flapjack most of the oat recipes I come up with seem to be sweet and although the oats may be good the sugar isn't.

[chocolateshoes]

Quiet at- sMy local Sainsburies do whole wheat tortilla wraps. They're very nice

[over40andmumtoone]

We're up and running here. Brown bread for toast this morning, we'll be having brown bread sandwiches, Weetabix and Cheerios cereals, and probably try some fruity porridge too.
I only really use brown rice, but am going to add brown basmati rice into the mix. We'e not had pitta breads for ages so these will be great for lunchtimes, along with bagels and wraps. I love Ryvita, so am sure they will pop up too.
I use wholewheat spaghetti and will be looking at other wholewheat pastas, along with couscous.

I'm going to be trying the One pot Chicken & Oaty Sweet Potato Roast later in the week.

We love cakes here and a firm favourite are Oaty Banana Muffins - my som will be very happy!

[Beccie77]

OK so the rice has gone down fabulously - I agree it's a nutty kind of twist and hubby suggested having pork chops with it rather than making it into a risotto - think he didn't want to risk drowning the new flavour, and it was great.
Both boys liked it and that win means we are now in negotiations as to ditching the chocolate cereal in favour of Weatabix [- in our defence, they were originally not eating breakfast, then I got them to have some by buying in pastry (croissants, etc.), which I wasn't happy about health-wise, and the chocolate cereal is a 'bridging' breakfast to wean them off the pastry! If we make it all the way through wheatabix to bran/museli/shreddies I will be very happy!]
Lunchtime pitta wasn't completely eaten, not sure if its the filling that isn't 'wet' enough (ham and cheese) - do wholewheat breads need more mayo/tomato to make them equally palatable? Will try out a salad pitta tomorrow, while the boys have humous and toasted bread wedges (an odd family invention, but travels well).

[woodrunner]

I did the wholewheat pasta this evening. TBH I was dreading it, as last time I had it (decades ago) it was foul. But we had it in a bake with spinach, peppers, fresh tomato sauce and cheese. It was really nice. DC didn't even notice it wasn't their usual pasta and had several helpings.

I find that the wholegrain is far more filling, so have less of it. Can't say that's applied to DC at all so far.

[Theimpossiblegirl]

I find wholemeal bread a bit dry too. Adding mayo or similar makes it easier to swallow but does it not cancel out some of the health benefits? It is tasty though, the girls ate it in their packed lunches today but left their crusts. In fairness they always leave their crusts. I might tell them there is a Mumsnet crusts challenge next.
:)

[MadMonkeys]

We had homemade chicken curry with brown basmati rice tonight, it was lovely. I actually prefer brown basmati to white, both in terms of texture and flavour.

The DC's had whole wheat pasta bol and didn't seem to notice the pasta was different, they both scoffed it down.

Those who find wholemeal bread dry - I do too, if I buy the bread, but homemade (in the breadmaker) it isn't dry at all. It is completely different to shop bought, much much nicer, lighter and tastes great.

Thank you Mumsnet for the nudge to eat more wholegrain and the voucher.

[frizzyhaired]

W've been thinking of improving our diet this year as a family 'resolution'. We do eat only whole grain bread but hoping to improve dies on other things as well. Did some shopping yesterday- whole grain pasta and red rice. I have to say my husband didn't care for the pasta. I'm going to try mixing it with normal pasta and hope that's better. We switched to rapeseed oil as well.

[CuttedUpGrape]

So on our first day we had

Weetabix and fruit for breakfast
Sunbites (among other things) as a snack
Shreddies and fruit for lunch - that was my 2 year old's choice as he was desperate to have the frozen fruit of the forrest we got the other day
Wholegrain Spaghetti bolognese for dinner

I did'nt get round to making the welsh cakes but will try again tomorrow.

[Mograt]

Hi got my pack at the weekend and just done my online shopping at Sainsburys to be delivered tomorrow and I've added:
Rapeseed oil - cold pressed and Sainsburys Organic (expensive) New to try
Hempseed oil (even more costly) New to try
Whole meal pasta - Often buy this but usually left on the shelf by my DCs if there's normal
Basmati and brown rice mix - love these rice mixes but kids are going to have to be arm-wrestled into eating them - find if I cook into risotto things it works better!
Some mixed bags of seeds for scattering onto various snacks, or eating by the shovelful
Ryvita with pumpkin seeds and oats
Dr Karg seedy crackers (always love these but again expensive)
Huge bag of oats for my porridge fix - whole family eats porridge without complaining and it's really good value and filling
Oat sliced loaf (usually get this as whole family will eat)
Quinoa
Linwood's 5 Seed Mix (already have their flax seed every day on my porridge and mixed into my plain yoghurt)
Bags of brazils and almonds
Broth mix with pearl barley as just bought one of those all in one soup makers so into making my own soups
Split peas and marrowfat peas for home-made pea and ham soup
Dried butter beans - also for soup

Main observation, like others, is that it's more expensive to buy these whole foods. However it will be worth it if I can extend my 12 yr old DD's narrow food range (If left to own devices would live on white bread, pasta, cheese and pesto) and fill up my always starving 14 yr old DS for longer. Looking forward to trying some new recipes from the Wholegrain site and adding these foods into my usual recipes too.

[telsa]

Non-official tester here just popping in to say| I love wholegrain. I love German wholegrain bread and can't find it enough in the Uk. I love wholegrain pasta and the like but DP hates it. What can I do to slip it into meals and not have him object. I think the DCs would like it. I especially love the nuttiness of brown rice. I may try the red camargue rice, as it is at least not the dreaded brown colour!

[pigear]

We already eat quite a lot of wholegrain foods - I introduced them to our diet a number of years ago as I had read that it is healthier than white/more processed alternatives, so I am lucky that my 5 year old daughter already eats wholemeal bread, pasta, rice, cous cous, cereals with no problems as that is what she is used to.

However we are using the challenge to try some other wholegrain alternatives that we don't normally eat to see how we get on.

To start my daughter and I made scones with half wholemeal/half white flour instead of the usual just white flour. I didn't enjoy them as much as white ones but they were OK. My daughter and husband liked them and my daughter ate as many as usual with no complaints! I was surprised as she often decides she doesn't like new/different foods even before she has tried them.

I do agree with other posters that wholemeal alternatives are definitely more expensive than white options, except for "value" wholemeal bread - we have found some brands are dryer than others.

[BlackeyedSusan]

you need to pick your wholemeal bread carefully. sainsbury's is a lot dryer than some of the others. we have some lovely soft morrisons bread at two for one pound this week. I usually get aldis everyday essentials

we had whole grain for tea too. brown rice with a tomato based lentil, bean and veggies sauce.

I may try pop corn in their lunches tomorrow or wednesday.

[redoctober]

Have stocked up on lots of wholegrain goodies. Bread, pasta, rice and made one of the recipes out of the booklet for dinner last night. I must admit that I have had less problems than I thought I would. I thought my daughter would kick up a fuss about the wholemeal bread but she didn't even bat an eyelid.

[CuttedUpGrape]

morning all!

my DS has developed a serious shreddies habit, it would seem. he's currently on his 3rd bowl. even the baby is scoffing them down. i'm not lacing it with sugar, just good old grated apple btw. and i feel i have to add that they're not actual shreddies made by evil nestle, but the sainsbury own brand version.

cries of "mooooreeeeee, pleaaaaaase", i have to go!