Hi friends. I want to thank you for your very kind comments (and emails and Tweets and FB messages) of condolence over the past few days. Thank you for holding my sister in your thoughts.

I am en route to Iowa this morning and thought I would share a few things that I did to prepare for the trip. Namely, eat vegetables.

We get a weekly organic produce delivery every Thursday. This means I had a lot of veggies to try to use up before leaving (and it meant canceling this week’s order!). Dave’s cousin and her husband spent Thursday night with us (we were out for dinner when I got the sad news and they were wonderfully supportive). I made them massively veggie-packed food Friday morning as a thank you.

Before heading out for a hike in the Garden of the Gods I made them their very first green smoothies. I used one entire head of red leaf lettuce, three cups of unsweetened almond milk, one and one-half frozen banana, one cup of frozen cherries and one medjool date (Served 4).

They were pleasantly surprised and Liz even shared it on her Facebook! I also prepared my Creamy Breakfast Casserole before the hike

which we put into the oven upon our return. I used an entire bunch of kale and lots of other veggies and I served the casserole with an arugula salad (and toast with homemade vegan butter). I think the veggie-ful morning of drinks and eats was a real hit.

Sunday I realized it was go-time for the rest of my produce – use ’em or lose ’em. I juiced all of our apples (14) which only made about 16 ounces of juice. So that was easy. But oh, wow, did I still have a ton of veggies. I decided to make a “toss whatever ya’ got” in the pressure cooker type of soup.

I’d say I used about 4 quarts of chopped veggies. I added 8 cups of vegetable stock (that I had made just a few days prior with last week’s produce…sensing a trend here?) and grabbed a few bottles from the spice drawer. This happened:

It was so, so good. I had it for lunch Sunday and for breakfast and lunch Monday…and still had about six cups leftover, which I poured into a sturdy storage bag and tossed into the freezer. It’s such a simple recipe.

JL’s Oh-So-Very Veggie Pressure Cooker Soup by JL Fields @ JL goes Vegan Ingredients 1 tablespoon avocado oil

3 – 4 quarts of chopped veggies (I used onion, garlic, carrot, celery, zucchini, potatoes, red pepper and green pepper.)

1 tablespoon dill

1 tablespoon oregano

1 and 1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

7 – 8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

Juice of one lemon Instructions Heat avocado oil in an uncovered pressure cooker on medium heat. Add all of the vegetables, spices, and salt and pepper. Stir well. Add vegetable broth, stir, and cover the pressure cooker. Bring to pressure. Cook at pressure for six minutes. Use the quick release method (hold the pressure cooker under cold running water in the sink). Remove the lid, away from you. Stir in lemon juice and taste-test to determine if you would like more salt and pepper. Powered by Recipage

It felt good to leave knowing that no food would go to waste during my time away.

It felt good to leave my fur babies in the capable hands of a very sweet college student who we met, along with her parents, at a fundraising event last month.

More later this week and, again, thank you for your kindness.