This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SpringIntoFlavor #CollectiveBias

Guys, I am SO excited today. Like REALLY excited. And it’s not because my little one started rolling over early and I’m convinced he’s going to be an Olympian though that was a good day.

I’m excited because I finally get to work with Alexia Fries & Onion Rings. For months, I’ve been like a little puppy dog circling around this brand all woof, woof, look at me. I’m cute. Give me a fry. I won’t pee on the carpet. Promise. Well, all that circling paid off because I finally got that fry, and, let me tell ya, it was gooood.

This opportunity couldn’t come at a better time. I’m going back to my day job (blah) next week and between taking care of the babe, feeding my fam, mountains of laundry, blogging, social media, etc, etc, I am resigned to the fact that my days of cooking fancy meals from scratch are on permanent hiatus. No complicated bolognese sauces, no recipes that involve chopping mountains of veggies and certainly nothing that takes more than 60 minutes (unless it involves a crock pot). That means I will have to rely more on frozen foods and pre-packaged eats.

Usually I would be all sad face, but, fortunately for me, there are a lot of great brands out there (like Alexia) that provide healthy, all-natural shortcuts for us burned out moms who want to stay away from processed foods but don’t have time to slice a bunch of taters into baked fries. Even more fortunate for me, the new Walmart by our house carries all the Alexia products. Woot woot!

You can throw the fries into the oven for a quick dinner side dish, but, even better, you can use the fries (or o-rings) as a base for a fun snack. And what’s one of the funnest snacks involving french fries? POUTINE. Fries, gravy, cheese. What’s not to love, eh?

But, let’s be honest. It’s a pretty trashy dish. A meal generally has no redeeming health qualities when the ingredients include fried starch, gravy and cheese. But poutine’s not a lost cause, my friends. I think I made that clear with my Thanksgiving-inspired sweet potato poutine. If you start with some all-natural baked rosemary fries – or better yet, use half rosemary fries and half sweet potato fries for an additional health boost – make a low-sodium chicken stock gravy, add eggs for protein, use a strong cheese so you need less of it (kasseri rocks!) and top the whole kit and caboodle off with some fresh spring herbs like rosemary and thyme, suddenly, trashy poutine becomes a fancified baked snack or breakfast dish that doesn’t seem so bad for you.

Fancy enough to break out my awesome silver gravy boat.

It’s all about perception, right? And I perceive this to be mmm mmm goooooood.

Seriously though, kids will love eating french fries with gravy and cheese and adults will be all, wow, look at your fancy baked egg dish with its fancy cheese and fresh herbs. How faaaannnncy.

And you’ll be like I don’t care what any of you think because gooey cheese mixed with runny egg yolk and gravy equals food bliss.

Check out Alexia Fries & Onion Rings at their Facebook page and Pinterest Page.