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)

[Cantdothisagain]

Checking in as a tester - thank you for the voucher!

I've made berry muffins with whole grain flour which are really good and freeze and defrost well so there's my breakfast this week sorted - will bake something else at the weekend. Also made banana flapjacks for the kids.

In terms of savoury, whole meal pasta was ok buried in sauce (so might be ok anyway) - will buy again. Tonight was Camargue red rice which is delicious but not exactly bargainsome. I've also baked all our bread for the week.

Not sure what to try next... Going to skim this thread for more ideas. Enjoying this so far!

[IsletsOfLangerhans]

kirstyphillipsonlowe sorry to break the news, but I'm pretty sure pearl barley isn't classed as a wholegrain....

We've had two meals and a snack today with wholegrains - porridge/weetabix for breakfast and wholemeal sandwiches for lunch, with cake as a late afternoon snack. The raspberry and apple cake I made yesterday was lovely - used 2/3 wholemeal flour, which tasted fantastic and went down very well with my DDs and their friends who came round for tea. I've finally been out shopping to spend my voucher - bought wholegrain spaghetti, wholegrain tortilla wraps (to make Enchiladas) and buckwheat flour to make some crepes. Really looking forward to cooking this week!

[addictedtosugar]

Non tester.
You've all inspired me. The bread has been half and half this week. I find wholemeal goes off before we can finish the loaf (presliced). So thats all of us with one (sort of) whole grain meal a day, as we all have toast in the morning.

I always used to eat brown rice, but DH converted me to white. I still prefer brown, so maybe should start buying some again.

I also LOVE granary loaf (not the presliced stuff), but can scoff most of a loaf with butter, so not sure about the health benefits.

Has brown pasta changed in the past 10 years? I have horrid memories of brown stodge. Is it worth trying again?

[Beccie77]

Had no idea about how much better the bread is, a bit of iPhone research at lunchtime today when discussing the challenge at work was a real eye opener. Don't think I'll be buying white bread for a while! Going ok so far, trying couscous tomorrow and I've agreed to buy shred dies and whetabix in the morning to have a go with the boys, but they are not entirely convinced and have negotiated a banana topping, which I'm secretly quite pleased about...

[FrontForward]

I love whole grain bread. We already have whole grain cereals and I use the flour in cooking. Whole grain flour is really yum in crumbles.

Not keen on brown rice or pasts but will give it a go

[KnitActually]

non-tester here. I've actally figured out that my boys eat wholegrain everyday as they have some muesli in their breakfast. Not me though, I think I need to go to tescos and get some popcorn.

[chocolateshoes]

Porridge for breakfast, and used whole meal flour to make the sauce for tonight's lasagne. I could tell any difference apart that the sauce isn't quite so smooth.

[stephanddavid]

i went to sainsburys and bought sainsburys wholegrain malties cereal, sainsburys brown rice, warburtons brown square wraps, warburtons brown farmhouse loaf, sainsburys bake at home brown baguettes, sainsburys wholegrain spagetti, doves organic wholegrain rye flour.

its been very easy for us as i only mainly eat wholegrain foods anyways but loved the task!

[Theimpossiblegirl]

Wholegrain pasta is much better than it used to be. My kids can't really tell the difference in a bake, but I do half and half if served with a sauce not mixed in.

[polly164]

This is actually going better than I expected!!
We have had porridge for breakfast instead of ordinary cereal and it was lovely, really looking forward to it again.
I made a crumble for dessert tonight and used wholemeal flour with added oats for the crumble, I was surprised by how good it tasted.
I have swopped white sandwich thins for brown ones, both my children had them at lunch today, I was expecting some comments tonight but didn't get any.
I really don't have good memories of wholemeal pasta, so going to try that tomorrow. May possibly mix it half and half for the first time, then just gradually add more wholemeal. Will report back how it goes!

[CaramelisedOnion]

update....last night we had smoked haddock kedgeree with brown rice and as I had a little ball left of the pizza dough from Monday we made that into a garlic pizza bread. My son loves "YELLOW RICE" as kedgeree has to be described so as not to arouse suspicion (good old curry powder!) and the garlicbread was really lovely. I am definitely finding that the wholegrain alternatives are tastier than white....I had just been in the havit of using white bread. Although I already ate brown rice and occasionally brown pasta...I had tailed off a bit on the brown pasta. We bought brown spaghetti from sainsbury´s and made spaghetti and tomato sauce with the remaining tomato sauce used for the pizza topping on Monday.

In a swotty move....we also had Shreddies (DS) and porridge (me) for breakfast.

This wholegrain thing is ace!

Tomorrow night - lentils I think.....

[pigear]

My daughter and I had wholewheat noodles instead of "white" ones for lunch today, we couldn't tell the difference, they were lovely.

Someone else up-thread mentioned Nairns Oat cakes, I give my daughter plain ones for snacks and we have flavoured ones for the occasional treat - we both love the chocolate ones. The fruit ones are nice for a change, the ginger ones are rather strong but my daughter does like them - I find them a bit much. They come in handy sealed packets of 5 so great for taking out and about.

[kateandme]

wholegrain bread especial;ly freshly made is lovely.
and rice/

[Bubble80]

Woodrunner I'm in Scotland. The packed lunch police haven't made it this far yet! However all kids are asked before joining school if they have a peanut allergy and I can only assume that no one has one hence it's allowed. I'd not be bothered of peanuts weren't allowed, as it's a very valid reason to not give them. DS is away with peanut butter on his wholemeal roll for lunch today and often takes in peanuts as a snack.

Porridge, honey and banana for breakfast here today.

[Cammelia]

I can really recommend having wholegrain muesli for breakfast - it has stopped me from being hungry until lunchtime for the last 2 days.

[applepie13]

All going well here although today there are fewer opportunities for whole grain... we've had whole grain cereals for breakfast again. The girls have school dinners today (veg chilli and jacket potato) so may not have wholegrain, but they'll have popcorn for their pre-ballet snack and we'll see what we can do with tea. Just about to make some apple flapjack with some wrinkly apples in the fruit bowl...

[TheSkiingGardener]

Thank you for the voucher. So far we have bought whole meal bread flour, whole meal bread, pasta and rice, some oatcakes and a whole grain cereal.

The kids are living the cereal as an option. DS1 isn't too keen on the bread do I may make some with a mix of flours. DS2 is only 10 months and after a slice of whole grain bread spent the entire night letting off wind. May not be related, but I'm going gently with him anyway as he's so young. I've already noticed it's making me fuller and my digestion has improved, which is nice. Will see how we do as the challenge goes on.

[PantsInWash]

Looking forward to a wander round Tesco this morning with my voucher - but I'm a bit disheartened by all the comments on how expensive wholegrain stuff is. Surely if it's wholegrain, then they haven't had to take the grain out and therefore it's cheaper to produce? Probably a massively naive assumption there...

I like to think we eat wholegrain regularly - we make our own bread with a mixture of plain and malted grain flour, and sometimes DH makes wholemeal pittas which are delicious straight from the oven, so he's been lined up to make some this w/e. So the kids have whoelgrain bread in their sarnies every day at school, but as I'm trying to avoid too many carbs I think it's going to be quite difficult for me.

Going to try wholewheat pasta tonight, and bribe the kids with a promise of popcorn afterwards if they're not keen!

[csmony]

Having wholegrain crackers with hummous for mid morning snack-yummy.

whole grain products have a lot of fibre and keep us fuller for a longer time.

[kirstyphillipsonlowe]

We had yet another great wholemeal day.
We are enjoying the new food but I have got to be honest we are not noticing the difference eating the extra wholegrain. However, I don't think that you really notice any differences but I am sure that it is doing us good on the inside!
This is how we got on...

Wholegrain Goodness Challenge - Day 3

Breakfast

The twins had their usual breakfast while Joseph and hubby has Shreddies.

Lunch

The twins had the cottage pie that we had on day 2. They thoroughly enjoyed their lunch and they both had clean plates! At first I wasn't sure how any of the three children would be with the pearl barley but they all ate it with no problems!
We enjoyed he cottage pie so much even I had a bowl for my lunch.
Hubby had a homemade wholemeal bread sandwich and also took some wholemeal cinnamon and honey cake.

Dinner

The twins had an easy meal of spaghetti hoops on wholemeal toast.
As I wasn't feeling very well, hubby took over in the kitchen at dinner time! We enjoyed spaghetti carbonara made with organic wholegrain spaghetti.

Day 2 - Results

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

Another good wholegrain day, we are now on a roll and are automatically picking the wholegrain option. I hope that we continue this way.
Hijacked By Twins Wholegrain Goodness Challenge Day 3

[WowOoo]

Tried wholemeal pasta last night. It did not go down well with eldest son. that made my youngest complain about it too.

Read somewhere to mix it up with usual pasta. Good idea as I really don't want to waste it.

Wild rice went down really well. I thought they'd moan, but they loved it.
Porridge every morning - cheap too. Wholemeal bread liked by all but me. I do crave white bread but I'll stick to this for two weeks.

Going to make popcorn as a snack for trip on Saturday. I do this anyway. Didn't realise it was so healthy. Good, because I find it very moreish.

[BlackeyedSusan]

last night we had trout with wholewheat pasta and white sauce made with rapeseed oil. used white flour as the children are supposed to have some white in their diet. as they get older I will swap it for wholemeal. they had a whole heap of veggiess from the freezer too.

[BlackeyedSusan]

where is a good place to buy oatmeal

[woodrunner]

WooOoo - it's worth doing this challenge just to introduce them to all the different klnds of rice, isn't it? Wild, red, brown and brown basmati all going down well it seems.

Tonight: spicy quorn in wholemeal wraps. Hope they like it.