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NOW CLOSED Wholegrain Goodness challenge: add your feedback here and be in with a chance of winning supermarket vouchers - open to non-'official' testers too - prizes to be won

305 replies

TheOtherHelenMumsnet · 18/01/2013 11:00

If you're one of the 'official' 50 MNers who are taking part in the Wholegrain Goodness challenge, then this is the feedback/support thread that we'd like you to post on throughout the challenge. Each of the 50 MNers who post their feedback during the challenge will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 supermarket voucher of their choice.

If you're not an 'official' participant but want to take part in the challenge anyway, or just have wholegrain tips and ideas you'd like to share, then please add your comments below. All non-'official' participants who post their thoughts will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 supermarket voucher of their choice.

The challenge is to include wholegrain in at least one meal or snack for your family per day for two weeks, using a variety of wholegrain foods available (e.g. porridge, popcorn, oats etc.). To help, you can visit the Wholegrain Goodness website for their guide to wholegrain, for tips on how to identify wholegrain and for wholegrain recipe ideas.

The challenge starts on Monday (21 Jan) and we hope that participants will post here throughout

Please add your feedback on the following here:

~ Please share any tips and ideas you've discovered while taking part in this challenge e.g. have you found any good ways to encourage your child(ren) to choose wholegrains?

~ Have you discovered any recipes or tasty on-the-go wholegrain snacks that your family really like?

~ Have you tried out any Wholegrain Goodness recipes? How did you and your family find them?

Please add any other comments you have too - we'd love to hear from you at various stages of the challenge.

Thanks
MNHQ

OP posts:
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aristocat · 18/01/2013 16:09

Hi, just marking my place and thrilled to be taking part.

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youmaycallmeSSP · 18/01/2013 16:15

I'm not official so just being cheeky as I was planning on upping our whole grain intake anyway.

I got a popcorn maker as a Christmas present so today I made popcorn with 2yo DS. I hadn't thought of popcorn as a wholegrain before reading the website so I'm really pleased to be able to use my present so well. DS loved making the popcorn (and eating it!) so it's something I'll do more often.

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Trills · 18/01/2013 16:22

I got microwave popcorn in my graze box the other day (slightly salted) which was lots of fun.

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Grockle · 18/01/2013 16:31

I'm a tester... I've looked at the recipes and there seem to be very few that are vegetarian and most don't really appeal to me.

In fact, I've searched the recipe section of the wholegraingoodness site for 'vegetarian' & it only comes up with 3 recipes. I am sure there are more than that but it's really disappointing.

We'll have porridge every morning but I need to figure out what else to eat for other meals.

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NikkiCrick · 18/01/2013 21:21

Not an official but just wanted to say there are lots of (mean & vegetarian) recipes on Whole Grain Council website: wholegrainscouncil.org/recipes/main-dishes/

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fuzzpig · 19/01/2013 09:01

Very excited to be taking part and glad you started this thread already so we can all share ideas. DH is off to spend our voucher today so I am trying to write a list!

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DowntonTrout · 19/01/2013 09:16

Have ordered my shopping for Monday morning and have replaced my usual bread, cereal, rice, pasta etc with whole grain versions. My biggest challenge will be getting DD to eat them so I'm looking for recipes to "hide" whole grains in.

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catinthesnow · 19/01/2013 09:21

I love this site for recipes.

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helenthemadex · 19/01/2013 10:56

I have got bread, rice and pasta. It will be interesting to see if the kids notice the change in the food we normally eat

Im going to try pasta bake with the pasta tonight

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MrsKwazii · 19/01/2013 11:52

Right, I've been shopping and getting prepared. I've bought:

  • popping corn for snacks
  • wholemeal flour to make banana loafs, muffins and soda bread
  • oatcakes and wholegrain ryvitas for lunches
  • wholewheat penne and spaghetti and brown rice
  • porridge oats for cooking - like the idea of making a crust for fish (and cranachan for Burn's Night)


All of which came to £10.71. The price difference for some items is quite marked, especially the rice. Would have liked some wholegrain noodles for stir-frying too but couldn't find any in my local store.

I already have wholewheat cereals in the cupboard so will add them into the mix too and we already buy 50/50 bread - DH doesn't like brown bread so it's mainly to sneak wholegrain into his diet rather than DD's Grin. I like brown bread but it seems wasteful to buy a whole loaf just for me, even the small ones don't get finished off.

I'm interested to see if DD notices the change to wholegrain pasta and rice as she loves both normally but we have white versions as, again, DH isn't always keen on the brown. He's training for a race though so I reckon I can win him over from a nutrition point of view. We shall see ......

I often use www.bbcgoodfood.com/ as you can search by ingredient and course. Will take a good look at that other link as well Cat as well as the wholegrain goodness one.
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MrsKwazii · 19/01/2013 11:56

Sorry, should say that the price between wholegrain and refined versions of some food is quite marked. Why is this? Is it because there is less demand so prices are higher due to economies of scale of producing it? Or is it seen as a 'premium' product so prices are higher simply because they can be?

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SunshinePanda · 19/01/2013 16:30

Have also been shopping and got prepared. Always buy porridge and oatcakes anyway. Also got whole grain ryvita, made sure all bread was wholemeal and got wholemeal flour. Did look at brown rice and pasta but DS had said please don't make us eat brown pasta so will be interested to see how others get on with that. Have baked wholemeal scones and used the flour for carrot cake although it doesn't seem to have risen much. Both are ready for packed lunches but have just sampled the scones with a cup of tea after major snowball fight - they were a definite hit!

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catinthesnow · 19/01/2013 16:42

Could not get to shops but had some Food Doctor fig granola and made a traybake. Made two as the first one mixed with coconut oil did not stick together so I split it and mixed half with chocolate and the other half, mixed some butter and honey then baked it.Smile

Soup with spelt and linseed bread.

MrsKwazii, there is quite a marked difference in price plus in Tesco, the wholegrain products were on the topmost shelf so not so easy to find.

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PatTheHammer · 19/01/2013 18:54

Right also been to the shops and got prepared, whole grain versions of rice, pasta, spaghetti, wholemeal flour to make muffins and do some more baking, the ryvita with pumpkin seeds were on offer, got oatcakes and oats, multiseed tortilla wraps, wholemeal rolls.

We have whole grain cereals and bread anyway do really I'm more interested in whether the kids can tell the difference with the rice/ pasta and going to try different grains than the cous cous they usually eat.
Money wise my shop was about 10 pounds more, but I wouldn't usually by all that rice and pasta in one go and we will eat it over two weeks,

I do have a question........do chocolate hob-nobs count? They have oats in them, plus I couldn't resistWink

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JambalayaCodfishPie · 19/01/2013 20:18

With regard to wholemeal pasta - we made the change as a family a few months ago and DD never noticed. There's no real difference in colour once its cooked. The taste is pretty much the same too. Might be worth just cooking it and see if they notice! Grin

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CraftyBec · 19/01/2013 21:07

My family are up for the challenge, although my 7 year old DD, who loves white bread and refined cereals, looked like she'd cry when I told her about the plan. I like to think we already eat quite healthily, with lots of fruit and veg, but was quite surprised when I realised how little wholegrain we actually consume. We bake our own bread (in a bread machine) usually 50/50 white/wholemeal flour, and have quite a few wholegrain cereals, but that's about it.
I went shopping on Friday and bought:
wholemeal pasta
brown rice
wholemeal noodles
wholemeal plain flour
wholegrain cereal bars
wholegrain 'breakfast biscuits'
bran-enriched breadsticks (not strictly wholegrain but the closest I could get).
I spent quite a while studying labels in the store, but concluded that if it doesn't boast about being 'wholegrain' then it probably isn't. The extra things cost around £10 extra to my usual shop, so the voucher covered it nicely, thanks.Thanks

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Indith · 20/01/2013 11:17

Marking my place for monday :)

I've not been to Sainsbury's yet with my voucher, snowed a bit on Friday Grin. We have some stuff in the house though.

I need to menu plan for the week. I'll prob get there on Monday.

Plan is to kick dh and the dcs into making flapjack for snacks which they used to do every week and for me to get back into good bread making habits with some wholemeal flour.

Plus try out quinoa and bulger wheat and swap rice and pasta to wholemeal.

Breakfast won't change as is already wholemeal 5/6 days a week. Plus we have pearl barley in stews and soups around twice a week.

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aristocat · 20/01/2013 13:10

We have also been snowed in here so i will get my wholemeal shopping tomorrow and report back then.

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Lesbeadiva · 20/01/2013 13:17

We got some pasta, porridge, flour, brown rice and popcorn. I plan on making flapjacks and using the flour to make snacks too. We eat a lot of porridge but need to up our whole grain. Looking forward to starting.

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Indith · 20/01/2013 13:31

Oh yes popcorn. We do have popping kernals so if all else fails and more snow falls we can eat popcorn and watch dvds. Grin

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romanianmum · 20/01/2013 15:23

Hello all!i'm happy to be taking part in the challenge! All prepared now?

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androbbob · 20/01/2013 15:53

Went yesterday and got some wholegrain - will try these and get other in the week. I got Shreddies, wholegrain crackerbread, fruit and fibre bagels and the bread for toasting, rather than have white toast.

Will try the shreddies out tomorrow at breakfast for all three of us. DH does not do breakfast!

Planning on getting some oats and pasta later in the week.

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romanianmum · 20/01/2013 17:45

Have to say the challenge will be fairly easy for us as we usually it wholemeal anyway - pasta,rice,bread,flour etc. we never try the popcorn or the porridge but I will give it a go.

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PatTheHammer · 20/01/2013 19:50

Lunchboxes done for tomorrow: Wholemeal ham/salad rolls and a Jordan's oat bar (honey and almond) instead of usual cereal bar. Decided to do lunch and breakfast (toast and wheetabix) tomorrow as dinner is chicken pie from roast chicken leftovers and that definitely ain't wholegrain pastry Grin.

Going to use the rest of the chicken on tues in a pasta bake using the whole grain pasta.

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Grockle · 20/01/2013 20:37

I think we'll focus on breakfast & lunch too. DS has requested chocolate porridge in the morning (porridge with a chocolate coin left over from Christmas) so that's a good start. And a wholemeal roll for lunch.

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