[Molly Yeh] As a busy mom, I'm always on the go.
So I've got a slew of simple recipes
to make life a little less complicated.
Felt like something a cool mom would do.
Like my make-ahead oatmeal cookie salads.
Oh, baby.
Pancetta, kale, and white bean melts
that are easy, cheesy, and full of flavor.
This is the face that you make when you eat a melt.
A fluffy harissa potato chip frittata.
And for dessert, a simple show stopper.
Oh, that looks so good.
My fudge-like fridge cake is filled with fun.
Look at these beauties.
Hey, this is me, Molly Yeh.
This is my husband Nick.
This is our growing family.
And this is our farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border,
the place where I eat, sleep, and breathe food.
As a self-proclaimed capital C cool mom,
I love thinking of tasty,
healthy-ish foods for the kids.
And on super busy weeks,
I often turn to make-ahead morning meals.
So I'm making my oatmeal cookie salads.
They are sweet chia pudding folded together
with almond breakfast cookies and maple Greek yogurt.
It could totally pass as dessert,
but with a secret, hidden, nutrient-packed agenda.
I'll start with the queen of make-ahead breakfast,
chia pudding.
A third of a cup of chia seeds.
And chia seeds are great.
They're loaded with omega-3s,
so they make your hair and skin and nails just glow.
And I'm combining it with one and a half cups of milk.
You can use almond milk, oat milk.
I'm sweetening with a few tablespoons of sugar.
So this is actually a really fun dessert to make with kids,
because it's a no-cook situation.
And you can see it start to thicken up right before your eyes.
And I'll whisk this up.
I think I should address the elephant in the room
right dang now,
which is that I don't get out nearly enough
to be a cool mom.
I don't wear a fanny pack like a crossbody.
The newest social media apps make my brain melt.
And I've been to a cycling class once.
And I never went back.
That was years ago.
I am working on solidifying my position
as having the tastiest play date snacks.
So there's that.
Okay, it's already starting to thicken.
I'll set this aside while the chia seeds plump up.
I'll get going on my cookies now.
So these cookies are essentially
super seedy granola bars, but in cookie form.
I'll start with one cup of almond butter.
You could definitely use peanut butter too.
And this is obviously the unsweetened kind.
But it's really hard to find the unsalted kind,
so that's fine.
I'll embrace the extra salt.
I'll sweeten with half a cup of brown sugar.
They still have to have some sweetness to be a cookie.
Half a cup of rolled oats.
These add great nuttiness and chew.
And then a quarter cup of millet flour,
which is finely ground millet seeds,
another one of my cool mom ingredients.
And this adds some great fiber.
It helps bind the cookies together.
If you didn't want to go out searching for millet flour,
you could also use oat flour, chickpea flour, almond flour,
a tablespoon each of hemp seeds, and flax seeds.
I love using seeds because they have a mild flavor,
but they do pack a lot of nutrients.
A couple of good pinches of kosher salt, an egg,
and a splash of almond extract to emphasize
the almond flavor from the almond butter.
And then I'll just mix this up.
Cookie salad is a Midwest classic common at potlucks.
I see a ton of it at the grocery store prepared food section.
It's essentially cookies, pudding, whipped cream,
and some kind of fruit.
And it's a perfect make-ahead breakfast.
I feel like any time you use the word "cookie" in a breakfast,
the kids are going to get excited.
Okay.
I'll scoop tablespoon-sized mounds of the dough
onto my baking sheet.
These would be delicious on their own.
But they'll be even more fun in salad.
I'll flatten them slightly.
And then these will bake at 375 degrees
for nine to 10 minutes
until they're golden on the edges.
And then I'll toss together some salads.
My cookies are cooling. They smell great.
But to turn them into a level 10,
that's a club in town,
I'll turn them into cookie salads.
I'll combine two cups of yogurt
with a drizzle of maple syrup
just to sweeten it slightly.
And of course, maple syrup is a key flavor of breakfast.
And I like that you get that tangy acidity from the yogurt.
So it balances everything out.
Cookie salads have got to have a fruit element.
So I'm using mixed berries.
I've got blueberries, blackberries, raspberries,
and strawberries here.
I'll reserve a few for the topping.
Crumble in about half of my cookies.
I like some big chunks.
And the cookies just soften over time
into a tasty cake-like texture.
And lastly, the chia pudding,
which by now has thickened up.
Yeah, look at that texture.
And I'll give this a couple of quick folds.
I like to see some of the streaks of the chia pudding,
so I'm going to be careful not to overmix it.
Ta-da-da-da! That's it.
I'll get a jar, fill her on up.
Finish with some berries and some cookies.
Oh, baby.
Is this a cool mom breakfast?
Or is this a cool mom breakfast?
Cool mom's gotta taste test.
-Well, well, well. -What do we have here?
If it isn't the cool dad
coming for my cool mom breakfast.
Do you want some? It's a breakfast cookie salad.
You're cool and all, but I don't know
if you can pull off cookie salad for breakfast.
Here, let's taste it.
Cheers.
I want more.
There it is.
We can give these to our kids for breakfast.
Okay, I only have one condition.
I'm the one that hands it to Bernie.
I will let you take partial credit
if you help me build the rest of them.
Fair.
[Molly] Coming up, a cake that you don't have to bake.
So good and so easy, it'll blow your mind.
Between preschool drop-offs,
running to the restaurant,
prioritizing eight full hours of sleep every night,
my time for making desserts is not what it used to be,
which is why I particularly love
quick and easy no-bake sweets,
like this dark chocolate fridge cake.
It's got buttery shortbread, pretzels, nuts, marshmallows,
and gummies all glued together by chocolate.
It's so good, and it's way too easy to make.
It comes together in this one bowl,
which I'm starting over a pot of simmering water
so that I could melt my chocolate.
I've got dark chocolate chips here,
but really, you could use any chocolate.
And I'll combine it with three tablespoons of unsalted butter,
and then I'll stir this around and allow it to melt smoothly.
So melting the chocolate over a double boiler here,
because any time you melt chocolate,
you don't want it to overheat.
If it gets too hot, it'll seize up,
and it won't be smooth and melty.
The inspiration for this recipe
is a Scottish treat called tiffin,
which is melted chocolate, and there's cookies mixed in.
Usually there's dried fruit,
but I'm going with gummy worms today.
Just felt like something a cool mom would do.
This chocolate is looking so smooth and glossy.
Now that this is melted, I'll remove it from heat,
and I'll just carefully get it off of the pot.
And then I'll just sprinkle in all of my mix-ins,
so you truly can do no wrong here.
I'm starting with shortbread.
Toss in any sort of cookies or candy or nuts,
anything that you want, as long as you have
a combination of crunchy thing,
chewy thing, salty thing, sweet thing.
A nutty thing is nice.
I love pistachios.
They taste good, and they're my favorite color, green.
Gummies.
Every time I say gummy, I feel like I'm making a drug reference,
but it's really just because I'm trying to avoid
saying the word "worm."
Pretzels for more saltiness and crunch.
I'm all about this sweet and salty combo.
I know some people are not into it,
which I think is kind of weird.
And then a really special element
to this particular version is marshmallows,
and these are homemade two-tone
almond and hibiscus marshmallows,
and they were really fun to make.
Just sprinkle unflavored gelatin
over a combination of water
with almond and vanilla extracts,
let it bloom, and slowly pour in a stream of sugar syrup,
heat it to 240 degrees,
and whisk it for seven to 10 minutes until it's fluffy.
Spread it into an 11 by 7 baking dish,
and then do the same thing over again,
put some of the water for hibiscus-steeped water,
and plop that onto your first layer.
Let it set.
Slice it up, and dust with powdered sugar and cornstarch,
so they don't stick together.
Of course, sorbate would also be fine, too.
I'll chop these up.
Chopping marshmallows is quite satisfying.
Now, since their newly cut ends are a bit sticky,
I'll dust with a little powdered sugar and cornstarch.
Roll them around, and then plop 'em in.
I love all these colors and textures together.
I'll fold this all together and get everything
totally coated in the chocolate.
This was one of the first things that I made
after Ira was born.
Baking in those first few weeks after giving birth
is so daunting.
So I did this while she was still in my carrier.
That's a testament to how easy this is.
I've got an 8 by 8 square pan
lined on the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
It'll help me remove the cake from the pan
when it's done setting.
I'll scrape this in with all that chocolatey goodness.
Wouldn't you like to be bathed in chocolate to this extent?
I'll spread this out evenly,
getting it all the way into the corners.
Really, it's more like a chocolate bar than a cake,
but I didn't make the name.
And then sprinkle with a good couple of pinches
of flaky salt.
A good amount of salt makes chocolate even better.
All right.
I'll let this set in the fridge.
I cannot wait for that first bite.
Cake's looking firm.
I am ready to slice it into bars.
And the best cut is always the first one
where you can see that first cross section.
Oh, that looks so good.
I love it so much.
The pink and the pistachio, that is my color palette.
I could do this all day.
Now, I know these are going to be delicious,
but I feel as if I just need to confirm that fact.
Mmm-hmm.
All those textures have come together
for one fudgin' delicious bite.
Next, the secret ingredient that gives my fluffy frittata
a crispy, salty edge.
When I'm tight on time and everyone's getting hungry,
you'll likely find me reaching for the carton of eggs
and when the kids aren't looking,
the bag of potato chips.
So today, I'm combining the two
into a potato chip frittata.
It's a fluffy, creamy frittata
dotted with surprises of melty goat cheese and salty chips.
This is not your average frittata, people.
I'm starting with a whole dang dozen of eggs,
and I'll enrich them with half a cup of heavy cream.
I like my frittatas heavy on the creaminess.
This is also a nice insurance against
over baking your frittata and drying it out.
Oh, dried frittatas are the worst.
Season with a teaspoon of salt
and some black pepper...
and whisk this until it's smooth.
So the potato chip frittata, not my original idea,
it's actually a pretty common hack
for making a Spanish tortilla.
A Spanish tortilla is thinly sliced potatoes
that you fry in oil before folding into egg,
and potato chips are thinly sliced potatoes,
fried in oil.
So it's a great shortcut.
It is different than a Spanish tortilla
and that the chips are crispier,
but that's not a bad thing.
I like to get my eggs super homogenous and smooth.
I don't want to see any bits of yolk or egg whites.
This is looking great.
I'll load up this frittata with one cup
of roasted red peppers.
These are smoky and sweet.
I'll just fold these right in
and then cook up my onions.
I've got an oven-safe skillet here
heating over medium heat.
I'll add a good glug of olive oil.
Good frittatas develop a great crust around the outside,
and that's from not holding back with the olive oil.
I'll toss in one yellow onion, thinly sliced,
and get these softened.
I always used to turn my nose up
at quick and easy meals,
but let me tell you,
that all changes when you have kids.
These onions are smelling delish.
I'll spread them out evenly on the bottom of my pan,
and then pour the egg over them.
I'll dollop in some goat cheese,
which will create these pockets of meltiness
scattered throughout.
The flavor combination of the goat cheese,
and the red pepper, and the harissa drizzle
that I'll finish it with is a great combination.
And starting with a hot skillet like this
will help create a great crust on the outside of the egg.
And the star of the show, the potato chips,
my kryptonite.
I truly think potato chips might be
one of my top five favorite foods.
I'll sprinkle two cups of potato chips all over
and make sure that some of them soak into the egg,
and some of them will kind of coast on top.
Can get a great variation of textures with this.
And you get all the saltiness.
My favorite.
This is looking great.
I'll get this into the oven now
at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes
until the edges are golden
and the very center is still a bit jiggly.
And while that bakes, I'll make my harissa sauce.
This is the smoky, creamy element
that any frittata would be grateful for.
I'm starting with three tablespoons of harissa paste,
which is a Tunisian pepper paste
that's super smoky.
Two tablespoons each of yogurt and mayonnaise
will produce a great combination of creamy brightness.
And the juice of half a lemon will make this drizzly.
My one strong opinion about frittatas
is that they are not finished
when they come out of the oven.
Just like a pizza, they need additional toppings
after they're done baking.
So between this drizzle and all of these fresh herbs,
this is going to be a gorgeous and flavorful frittata.
That's how the cool moms say it.
Mix it around.
That's going to look great on the frittata.
I'll get the frittata out of the oven.
Oh, yeah.
I can just see the textural excitement happening here.
For a finishing touch.
I'll start with a drizzle of my harissa.
I'm unleashing my inner frittata artist.
A good pinch of flaky salt
and loads of fresh herbs.
I have mint, dill, parsley, and cilantro here,
which will add a freshness and color.
Black pepper.
Lemon wedges.
This is so gorgeous.
I almost don't want to dig in.
I'm going to get the perfect bite.
A little goat cheese, a lot of potato chips, some herbs.
Mmm.
[mumbles] Tastes good.
It's creamy. It's tangy.
This is all of that and a bag of potato chips.
Still to come, a fast and fresh dish
that'll melt in your mouth.
For a savory dish that can be made in a flash,
I am making my pancetta, kale, and white bean melts.
There are salty, cheesy, open-faced sandwiches
that are so wildly satisfying.
I seriously dream about these regularly.
I'm starting by crisping out my pancetta,
which is pork belly that's been salt-cured but not smoked.
It's so flavorful that you don't need a ton of it
to get the full effect.
And these little bits will be salty, flavorful surprises
scattered throughout.
The fat has rendered.
I'll use that to cook down my kale.
I've got lacinato kale here, which is dark and hearty.
And these melts are basically
a way of me shoving kale into my mouth.
A bit of finely chopped garlic.
If you don't think you like kale,
try it with a lot of garlic and something acidic,
and then you will be sold.
Some fennel seeds.
I always get sausage vibes when I eat fennel.
A couple of pinches of kosher salt.
We'll draw the moisture out of the kale and help it soften.
Black pepper.
I'll cook on medium for just a few minutes
until the kale is wilted.
Melts are the perfect anytime food, really.
It's just like cheese on toast, but extra.
The kale is just about where I want it to be.
I'll toss in a can of white beans.
I'm using cannellinis that I rinsed.
And they add such great creaminess.
I'll toss these around, and I'm just looking
for the beans to get warmed through.
This truly is a full meal on toast.
You've got the protein. You've got the veggies.
You've got the cheese.
Looks great to me.
I'll move this from the heat and grab my toast and cheese.
I've got thick slices of sourdough.
I've also got some Dijon mustard,
which will contribute some important brightness
in and amongst these heartier flavors.
I'll spread a thin layer of Dijon
all over the sourdough.
Melts are great structurally,
because sometimes you want to have
a thick slice of sourdough.
If you were to have a thick slice of sourdough
times two in sandwich form,
it doesn't always eat the best.
I'm all about the melts.
I'll top these with two slices of cheese each,
because these are big toasts.
And I have a big appetite when I'm running around
to preschool, pick up and the like.
I'll top with kale and white beans,
just piling it on top.
These are kind of sloppy.
Melts should be kind of sloppy.
This is the face that you make when you eat a melt.
I'll finish with another slice of cheese
to melt down into the crevices of the beans and the kale.
I'll bake these at 500 degrees for seven minutes
until the cheese is melty.
I think that's the sound of cheese melting.
Hello.
Those are beauts.
They need a couple of extra embellishments.
Black pepper, flaky salt,
and hot sauce, because plot twist.
I'm no longer a cool mom.
I'm a hot mom.
These are so rustically delicious looking.
Here I go.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
That is totally worth all the messiness
that is happening on my face right now.
It's melty. It's crusty.
All right.
Got to run.
It's been fun.