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).

Challenge is going well in our house porridge breakfast a staple anyway but 4/4 of us eating it. Wholegrain bread for our lunches or the wholegrain creackers with spreadable chedder, cherry toms a basil all a winner with 3/4 of us. The brown pitta, rice, wraps have been a hit too with 3/4. We plan homemade pizza bases for a Saturday treat and looking for a yummy wholegrain dessert for Sunday. To sum up to date we have been getting 2 if not 3 wholegrains into our day..well dc and myself, hubby still won't touch the "brown stuff......."

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

I did know about the benefits of wholegrain but it is easy to forget and not keep it top of mind. Often the 'easier' options for food tend to be refined foods that are not wholegrain so it has been a good chance to remind myself of the importance of wholegrain and get back into the habit of it.

I also find i get confused sometimes - so knowing about the popcorn for example, makes it a really easy healthy snack for me and the kids.

We're sticking purely to wholegrain bread for the challenge and actually feel better for it! Feels like a more constant filling feel rather than highs and lows and needing sweet pick me up treats through the day.

Porridge has been rediscovered as a great breakfast choice by our whole family too.

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

Not yet - am keen to try the 'on the go' energy bars as i don't like how unhealthy shop-bought cereal bars can be.

~ 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.

Main tip so far - keep some easy wholegrain snacks to hand for after school for the kids - eg popcorn, wholegrain crackers or wholegrain toast.

Thank you for the opportunity to take part.
My son's and I have tried the whole grain flatbread pizzas which we all enjoyed.
We have switched to whole grain bread which they are less keen on and I must admit I don't really like it for toast.
We have also tried the tuna recipe from the website which got a big thumbs up from the whole family. It's incredibly easy to make so it will become a firm favourite with us.
I will report further into the challenge.

I'm keeping a bag of oatbran in the cupboard and adding a spoonful or two wherever I can, for example to sweetcorn or courgette fritters, or into the bread machine, even when I'm making white bread

Hi MNers! Here is a message from Whole Grain Goodness:

We’re loving reading your posts so far – some great ideas and feedback – inspiring stuff! And those pics are making us hungry… there’s some skilled cooks on here! Good luck as you continue the challenge – we can’t wait to hear about your experiences as time goes on

started our week with some Pesto Pasta, which the kids loved. I have bought brown rice to make, with a curry. Had some lovely porridge each morning.

Tester

Mixed results so far. Porridge is popular in our house, wholemeal pasta and pitta bread not gone down well, wholemeal bread liked by one DC but not the other.
Planning on doing some baking using recipes from the site this weekend so will update later. Hope that's okay?

Really enjoying this challenge. Made a few simple swaps; wholemeal instead of white wraps, multi grain bread, wholegrain cereal. It's been really surprising how tasty the alternatives are and how filling too.

Last night we had quinoa and carrot patties which were delicious and had enough left over for lunch today. Just cooked quinoa (or rice) and left it to cool then mixed with grated onion and carrots, 2 beaten eggs and some garam masala then fried spoonfuls in a little oil, lovely with sweet chilli sauce.

We make our own bread in a bread machine. I find totally wholemeal bread and bit indigestible so mix half wholemeal with half white flour which is a good compromise. I wondered if that might work for some of you who have said one child likes wholemeal but not the other?

Tonight we had brown whole wheat pasta instead of our usual white. My daughter liked it! I prefer it but in the past, husband has complained about it. Not tonight though. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo. Just got back from work and was rushing!

Since my last post, we've had cous cous and more Weetabix, both of which we have regularly anyway. Not sure what's on the menu today. Will have a think! I know we have wholemeal pasta and an open jar of pesto 🤔

I've realised we eat more fibre than I thought. We always eat wholemeal bread and rice as well as porridge being popular with us all.

Day 5: (forgot to post this yesterday!). Had some wholemeal toast for breakfast and made myself a wholemeal quasidilla for lunch. Booth yummy! For tea we had Jerk chicken with whole grain rice and beans. The only problem was adjusting the recipe because the whole grain rice takes longer to cook than the white rice called for in the recipe and we had to give it even longer than we thought we would so slightly over cooked the chicken.

Really fancied pancakes this morning so me and the baby had wholemeal scotch pancakes with fruit and yoghurt, yum!

Easiest - and cheapest - recipe in the book for dinner last night. Made an arrabbiata sauce with canned tomatoes, chillis, garlic and olive oil and then added grated cheese on top of wholewheat pasta. Gave an additional taste to a very simple meal, delicious and satisfying.

Snap dew we had a home made tomato sauce with some added courgette and spinach , whole grain penne pasta and grated cheddar
Easy , cheap and filling

Making your own porridge is a really nice way to get the day off to a healthy start. I use oats, rye flakes, barley flakes, quinoa flakes and spelt flakes then add in linseeds, chia seeds and dried fruits and nuts. The best way to have it is to pour it into a bowl covered with oat milk as soon as you get up then eat it half an hour later when the milk has soaked into everything and made it lovely and gloopy.

I love wholegrain bread but can find it quite dry, so I always make sure the sandwich has plenty of 'juice' in it with tomatoes, avocado or dressing.

I love quinoa and brown rice, but I never seem to get wholegrain pasta to taste any better than cardboard so I'll be keen to try some of the recipes on here.

I would really like to increase my and my childrens intake of whole grain foods. I am shocked that popcorn is classed as a whole grain food. FANTASTIC! I do ensure that my kids school lunches that I make are with wholegrain bread. My twins are entitled to free sandwiches at school as they are under 7, however when I found out they were on using white bread, I declined!

Just checked out the amazing recipes. Tomorrow is going to be baking day now :-) Will be doing on-the-go energy bars and the fruity cinnamon oatcakes with the kids. They love to get their aprons on and help. I'm really pleased to find 'sweet' recipes as I always think of whole grain as a savory thing. Bookmarked the site and I'll be a regular visitor.

Day 6: Toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch (wholemeal bread), popcorn as a snack as we watched a film and meatballs, tomato sauce and wholgrain pasta for tea. I enjoyed the whole grain pasta- I quite enjoyed the different taste. The children once again didn't notice/mention the difference (I thought DS had noticed and didn't like it as he didn't eat it all, but it turned out he is a bit off colour with a temperature).

I have made some wholemeal bread to go with lunch tomorrow. Yum!

Great suggestions for the energy bars!

I've also dug out an old recipe for oat biscuits (will try and cut back on the butter).

Today was wholemeal bread with raisins and caraway seeds and a bit of p abut butter spread. Still a bit sweet (trying to cut down on sugar)?but definitely felt more satisfying than a standard shop bought fruit loaf with butter.

This eve will be fish stew with lentils and pulses and some wild rice. Really looking forward to it!

Non tester. - after looking at this, I realised I had very few whole grains in our families diet. We've now switched to whole meal bread and pittas for lunches at work and in the evenings when we have pasta and rice we swapped to half and half between white and wholegrain, hopefully as well use up (the simply ridiculous) amount of white pasta we have then we will just switch completely.

So we have been doing this challenge for 7 days. Finding it really quite easy to do as it takes little effort to swap to wholegrain. So a few meals we have had are wholegrain spaghetti for spaghetti and meatballs-which went down well with the kids although the spaghetti takes a little longer to cook. Also having 50/50 bread instead of white for sandwiches. I have had wholegain crackers instead of normal for lunch which I quite enjoyed with cheese. We are also having wild rice today with our dinner. Dont know how it will go down with the kids. We also made pancakes using wholegrain flour but the kids were not fans. They said they didnt like the bits so we may stick to white flour for those. Have to say we are enjoying this challenge and I think we will stick to wholegrains for some foods after the challenege. I definately feel the benefits as I feel fuller after meals.

~ Let us know what you think of whole grains / whole grain foods and if you knew about the benefits already or not.
I knew wholegrains were better for you but to be honest, had kind of slipped off the wholegrain waggon. We're firmly back on now, with wholegrain pasta, seedy bread, brown rice, porridge and couscous staples in our cupboard. I've also been making an effort to buy more products like wholegrain crisps and snacks for the kids.

~ Have you tried out any WholeGrainGoodness.com recipes? How did you and your family find them?
It's now half term, so that's next on the list- photos to follow if they look edible.

~ 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.
The girls have enjoyed wholegrain pasta with pesto and chicken in their lunchboxes, and said they feel full for much longer.

I will post more feedback later in the week. Thanks for including us in the challenge.

As a quick snack we've been buying ryvita wholegrain crackerbread and popping some houmous and avocado on them. Yum!

A week in and we are still enjoying it. We're so pleased to have this trial as it has given us the nudge we needed to get more wholegrain foods into our diet. It's so interesting to see the amount of different foods and snacks available. We'll definitely be sticking to it.
We have swapped our bread from white, and been using sandwich thins too which make a lovey change from the normal boring bread. We've also tried wholemeal pita bread and flatbread. We have the sunbites wholegrain crisps which are so tasty. I'm not really into many crisps but these have loads of flavour. The nature Valley bars are also really tasty.
This week we will get around to trying our wholewheat pasta and brown rice which I am looking forward too.
I'm also going to be using the website a lot and trying out a lot of the recipes. So many good ideas and I can't wait to make healthier meals and snacks for my children too as it's so important.
Thank you again for choosing us and letting us trial.