Whole Grain Goodness Challenge feedback thread - chance to win supermarket gift cards! NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

Here's what WholeGrainGoodness.com, a not-for-profit campaign aiming to inspire people to eat more whole grain, 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 high fibre foods are also an important part of a healthy, balanced diet? The dietary recommendation for adults is that we should aim for at least 30g of fibre a day; but currently only manage, on average, about 18g. Whole grains are a great source of fibre and so public health advice is to base our meals on starchy carbohydrate foods, and to choose whole grain varieties where possible.

So try something different for your new year's diet resolutions this year – take part in our whole grain challenge, involve your family too if you can, and add your feedback here to be entered into a prize draw."

Here's what's involved:
~ Official testers (those already selected by MNHQ) who add a comment here between Monday 6 February and Sunday 26 February can win a £250 supermarket voucher

~ Non-official testers (open to all UK MNers) who add a comment here between Monday 6 February and Sunday 26 February can win a £150 supermarket voucher

• The challenge is to include whole grains / whole grain foods in at least ONE meal or snack per day for two weeks and tell us what you think by adding your feedback here. Involve your family too if you can.

According to Wholegraingoodness.com:

"There’s so much variety available to choose from, such as wholemeal breads, flours, rolled oats, whole grain breakfast cereals, rye crackers. Even popcorn is a whole grain food! Perhaps try going half-and-half, like mixing white with wholemeal flour in baking, wild rice with white rice or brown pasta with white pasta. If you already eat lots of whole grain, feel free to take part in the challenge too, as we’d like to know what you think also, to help us inspire others to eat more delicious and nutritious whole grains.

"If you have any questions about whole grains go to WholeGrainGoodness.com and check out the Guide to Whole Grain pages and the FAQs, or use the Contact Us form. To help you get cooking with whole grains, try these delicious Recipes created by professional home economists and dietitians, designed to show that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring – it can be surprisingly good!"

Please add your feedback below on the following:
~ Let us know what you think of whole grains / whole grain foods 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, photos, recipes, tips or ideas you have too – we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge.

Thanks
MNHQ

Closing date: Sunday 26 February. Winners will be selected at random from all posting a comment: one ‘official’ tester and one ‘non-official’ tester – prizes as above.

Please note: posts on this thread may be reproduced by Whole Grain Goodness (AHDB).

great opportunity to try some other wholegrain products , normally wholegrain is breakfast of porridge or branflakes etc, also quite like wholemeal bread anyway, decided we'd swap to brown pasta and rice as normally buy white - partly as its cheaper.. there is more bite and taste to wholemeal I find so think we'll keep to a few of the changes

I've swapped to wholemeal pasta and brown rice. I bought wholemeal flour for my bread maker. I bought barley and made a soup. I bought bulgar wheat and made Tabbouleh, I'll post the recipe below.
The recipes on the website look amazing so I'm going to try some and report back soon.

Used my gift card in Tesco on Sunday
We bought oats , brown basmati rice , wholemeal flour , wholemeal pasta , some posh granola 😀( hope that counts ) and some of those pouches of brown rice & wild rice , and mixed grains
Had porridge for breakfast with a little brown sugar 🙄
And chicken curry for dinner with brown basmati rice pilau ( out of a pouch )
I've made overnight oats ( Greek yoghurt , frozen summer fruit and granola layered up and in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow )
So far , so good

Let us know what you think of whole grains / whole grain foods and if you knew about the benefits already or not.

Previously I have found wholegrains less soft and flavourful, especially brown bread, which reminded me of the sad childhood sandwiches at lunch time when my mum was on a healthy eating diet. Me and DH thought that we weren't fans despite eating hardly any wholegrain foods for years. I was expecting my kids to feel the same, so you'll understand my surprise when the challenge has revealed my family are really secret wholegrain lovers!

I knew how much better they were for you, in terms of fibre and nutrition, but I didn't expect many wholegrain products to in fact taste way better. The wholegrain pasta I bought was more "chewy" according to DD and I definitely liked how it kept its shape better and had a nice bite.

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

We made sooo many of the recipes, it was a great source of inspiration. Our favourite was the Fruit Loaf recipe! I made THREE batches, because my parents came to visit and wanted to bring a loaf home!

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

At first I decided not to tell the family that I'd switched our white grains to whole grains. I got away with it the first night (pasta bake), but I was discovered on the second day (spaghetti carbonara). The delightful thing was, rather than the fussy "I'm-not-eating-this-give-me-my-normal-pasta" routine I was anticipating, DS and DD simply kept on munching (both almost finished their plates!) and had lots of questions about the difference between the two. I hope this challenge will allow us to make a long term change as a family and to give the children good lifelong habits.

Breakfast biscuits for breakfast on the run today and wholegrain wraps with fajitas this evening. Delicious and filling.

The NHS advises that children shouldn't have just wholegrain before the age of 5, as it fills them up too fast, leaving them full before they've had the calories / nutrients they need

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/baby-food-questions.aspx

At the moment I'm cooking white rice / pasta for DD (2) and wholegrain for me and DP. What are others doing?

I'm looking forward to the challenge in the next two weeks. I was already aware of the benefits of whole grains and we eat some already as a family - mainly wholegrain bread and cereals. I'm keen to increase the variety of what we eat . Today I made sweet and sour chicken (the Hairy Dieters' "fakeaway" one from their book, which is delicious!) and we had it with brown rice instead of white basmati as we would usually have. I wasn't sure how the children would find the rice but they absolutely gobbled it up. I'll definitely be using brown rice again so I feel like I've gained something already. Looking forward to continuing!

First day of the challenge has been a success! I invested in a cereal dispenser and filled it with wholegrain cereal and the boys couldn't get enough of it. It tasted delicious too, a much nicer start than sugary cereal

I very much love eating whole grains. They're just so much more satisfying.

I usually start the day with muesli or porridge. I don't eat a lot of bread, but it's usually wholemeal, with or without added seeds, when I do. I tend to suffer, if I eat whote bread more than very occasionally

I usually eat brown rice, these days. Brown Basmati is particularly delicious and doesn't have a massively long cooking time. (Hate wholewheat pasta, though - the texture is all wrong!)

This evening, I had an Indian ready meal, bought by DH as part of a meal deal, but was too busy to cook brown basmati, partly because DH was faffing in the kitchen and in my way. I used a pouch of pre-cooked rice which, while not as lovely as freshly cooked, did the job and was very easy. I always have them on hand for busy, sore or tired days or our regular power cuts!

I'm back on MFP, trying to lose a few more pounds, at the moment, so will no doubt be trying to cram in more whole grains as I do best if I stick to small-moderate amounts of high fibre, complex carbs.

One hint, btw, is soba noodles if anyone is cooking stir fries or oriental style soups. Absolutely delicious (and, at a price, available as pure buckwheat, which are gluten free for people who need that).

I've always eaten lots of whole foods but just wanted to expand my repertoire a bit.

Whole grain muesli for breakfast this morning and an avocado and tomato sandwich on whole grain bread for lunch.

I've had to be careful today as I had a colonoscopy yesterday and need to reintroduce high-fire food slowly, so no whole grains in this evening's dinner.

High-fibre

Started my wholegrain challenge today with some porridge topped with sunflower seeds. I do feel fuller and better for it when I start the day with a proper breakfast. Presumably it's all down to the slow energy release rather than a quick and dirty sugar hit?

Need to investigate some healthy grain snacks to get me through the rest of the working day though. Any suggestions?

Haven't used my whole gift card yet!

123Julie - your fruit loaf looks amazing!!

A

Made overnight muesli oats
A bit stodgy ( think it needs some fresh juice )
I just layered up Greek yoghurt , frozen fruit and muesli in a glass , clingfilmed it , and left overnight (😀) in the fridge
Will have another go , and see if I can perfect the recipe !

Breakfast was my usual bowl of jumbo oats cooked in semi-skimmed milk with a chopped up banana thrown in.

Dinner was a chilli con carne simmered in the slow cooker and served with basmati / wild rice. Although wild rice is expensive, a handful mixed in with the basmati rice adds a delicious nuttiness to the dish.

We had bran flakes and raisins for breakfast today and dd is getting into the spirit. She is making pizzas with wholegrain flour dough!

Wholegrain homemade bread.
Yesterday myswlfnanf my 3year old made wholegrain bread at home. Myself and my 7year old son normally eat wholegrain bread anyway but my 3year old daughter and other half eat white bread. So I thought let's make our own bread, and of my daughter helps she's more likely to eat it. It was really easy to make. Got wholegrain flour, then needed yeast, salt, water and vegetable oil. My daughter loved making it. It did taste nice, only thing we could have done with was leaving it to rise for longer, bit I had a very impatient 3yr old. Will definitely make this again. My daughter ate it no problem, was no comment on it not being white bread 😀

Made the tuna pasta recipe last night (from the wholegrains website). Incredibly easy and quick and made lots of it so it could be eaten cold for lunch today. Only problem was my husband had been starved yesterday for day surgery so by dinnertime he was ravenous and, yep, no leftovers! Went down a treat and I do actually prefer wholegrain pasta as there is a bite to it that is lacking in the usual durum wheat products.

I've also discovered some rather wonderful snack items - see photo. Very delicious, just the right amount of salt and can be easily used with dips instead of tortilla chips.

And also Kellog's 5 grain muesli bars are pretty good as cereal bars. Very chewy so make sure the teeth are solid before giving them a go.

Day 2;
I had wrongly imagined that whole grain would include lentils, but nothing on the site so I assume that it counts as a legume - shame!

My husband has a heart problem so we try to avoid saturated fats and eat as much veg as possible. His current favourite meal is fajitas, with chicken, cumin, tomato, beans, chilli, avocado, lots of sweet pepper and onion, all wrapped up in a tortilla. Last night we tried wholemeal tortillas and they were OK, but we didn't really enjoy them as much as the softer white ones. As I had imagined they were rather chewy and stiff but perhaps it is simply a matter of getting used to them! Will persevere and try again.

DoILook try soaking your overnight oats in more liquid. I know a lot of recipes call for fruit juice but I like to use milk to soak and then add fresh fruit and yogurt in the morning.

Started my challenge with porridge for breakfast for the family - put some berries in and a bit of pineapple for sweetness - also added some flaxseeds and oat bran for extra goodness - can get lots of good stuff into the kids without them saying "what's that? - I don't like it!". I bought some wholemeal bread and also rye bread for sandwiches/toast. I'm doing fried chicken in egg/oats and wholemeal flour with brown rice and roasted veg for dinner.

Day 2. I am doing 5:2 fast, so no breakfast or lunch today. For dinner we will have couscous with ratatouille and a poached egg . My children will be having wholemeal quasidillas. Tomorrow I am planning to have porridge for breakfast, if i can get up a tad earlier!

Beef stew with pearled spelt for day 2
The dc have thoroughly enjoyed it. As have dh and I

We enjoyed looking at all of the products to try for the trial and got some snacks, pasta, sandwich pockets and wraps etc. Looking forward to the next 2 weeks. We've started our mornings with porridge, although we have some different cereal too.
Tonight we are having fajitas with wholemeal wraps which we are looking forward to trying.
We were aware of the benefits of wholegrain products, however were not aware of the wide variety of products available.
I have had a look at the website and it looks good. Lots of information and looking forward to trying out some recipes. The tomato pasta looks really good and glad to see others have tried it and would recommend. I also want to try to make the scones and muffins at some point too, they look nice and healthy too which is an added bonus.