What's in your sausage? Introducing all-natural foods by Safeway Open Nature (and a giveaway for you!)

You know the old saying, you should never visit a sausage factory, because if you see how they're made -- with all the entrails and parts of the animal nobody eats, and don't even ask which animal we're talking about -- you'll never eat sausage again? (okay, it's not really an old saying but everybody says it)

Turns out, you don't need to visit the factory, all you have to do to lose your appetite is read the list of ingredients. Sausages aren't just made with meat, salt and herbs they way they were made in the old days. I did a quick internet search and listed all the "extra" ingredients that I found in four or five varieties of sausage:

corn syrup
flavorings
dextrose
isolated soy product
isolated soy protein
sodium nitrite
sodium lactate
sodium phosphate
sodium diacetate
monosodium glutamate
collagen casing

At least entrails would have been part of the animal. You're no longer eating a sausage, you're eating a chemical lab!



Fortunately more and more companies are making all-natural products these days -- but price and availability is always an issue. But now that Safeway has introduced OpenNature, a line-up of 100% natural products, getting real food at a good price has never been easier.

I first heard of OpenNature at last weekend's World's Longest Table picnic, where chef Tyler Florence cooked a delicious meal with OpenNature products. Safeway sent me a gift card so I could try OpenNature products for myself, so I stocked up on some OpenNature sausages, Greek yogurt, granola and baby back ribs. The potato salad I made with the Greek yogurt was delicious, and so was the white bean and cauliflower stew that I made with the sausage for dinner tonight (Check out the recipe and photos on Finding Bonggamom). Their OpenNature Sweet Apple & Maple chicken sausage is proof that you don't need preservatives or artificial ingredients to make a great-tasting sausage. Here's the full list of ingredients:

chicken raised without antibiotics
apples
organic maple syrup
sea salt
organic evaporated cane juice
organic cinnamon
organic spices (nutmeg and allspice)
natural pork casing

Ahhhh, much better, right? Now that sounds like something Laura Ingalls' Ma could have made in their Little House on the Prairie. Something that even I could make in my kitchen, if I had the time or talent -- but why bother, when Safeway Open Nature does it so deliciously?


Win a $50 Safeway gift card
Safeway wants you to try their new OpenNature products, so one lucky Bonggamom Finds reader is going to win a $50 Safeway gift card!


Required entry:
Leave a comment on this post and tell me which OpenNature product you would most like to try. This entry must be completed before extra entries qualify.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).

1) Retweet my Safeway OpenNature tweet (1 entry per day, leave a comment with the tweet link for each tweet).

2) Retweet my Safeway giveaway tweet (1 entry per day, leave a comment with the tweet link for each tweet).

3) Write this on the Safeway Facebook page (1 entry):

I entered to win a $50 gift card on Bonggamom Finds! http://ow.ly/5rFOV

4) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook page (1 entry):

I entered the Safeway OpenNature giveaway! http://ow.ly/5rFOV

5) Leave a comment on my OpenNature potato salad post or my World's Longest Picnic table post and share your thoughts on what "100% natural foods" means to you (1 entry).

This giveaway ends at midnight PST on July 15, 2011; I will draw a winner at random on July 16 and post the winner's name on the comments section soon after. Continental US residents only. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: Thanks to Safeway for providing the gift card for this giveaway and additional gift cards for me to try their Open Nature products for myself. Product information is provided by the featured company/product and is indicated in italics. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.