Gooseberry Patch Early Review: 101 Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches (Plus a GIVEAWAY!)

The four of us here at Thread Together LOVE Gooseberry Patch books.  Debbie has even had a recipe featured in one of the books.  We could barely contain our excitement when we were offered the chance to become an Early Bird Reviewer for their upcoming cookbooks.  Over the next few months, we get a sneak peek at the books that will be hitting the bookstores soon and we will even have a copy to give away!  It is a match made in heaven!  Read through this post to find out how to enter to win a Gooseberry Patch cookbook before it hits the stores.

The first book that we reviewed is 101 Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches.  I was excited when I pulled the first review because my favorite thing to eat is soup and salad.  To me, it is comfort food.  If I can’t think of anything to make for dinner, I throw a pot of soup on the stove and make some grilled cheese sandwiches.  It always hits the spot.

This book, 101 Soups, Salads, & Sandwiches, is pages and pages of savory soups, tasty sandwiches, salads and toppings that compliment all of the above.  When the book arrived, I immediately started going through it and marking recipes I wanted to try.  The recipes are easy to prepare and each one that I tried turned out perfectly.  I am watching what I eat right now, so I paid attention to the ingredients as I flipped through the book.  I think that the recipes that call for not so healthy ingredients could easily be substituted.

The first recipe that I chose to try was Seafood Salad for a Crowd.  We have this little local restaurant that serves the most delicious seafood salad.  I have tried to duplicate it but haven’t had much luck.  This recipe comes pretty close!  The recipe is for a crowd and they aren’t kidding.  This would be perfect to take to a potluck or a big family dinner.  Since I was just making the salad for myself, I cut the recipe to almost one third of what each ingredient called for.  I still have enough salad leftover for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.  My changes to the recipe are italicized in the parenthesis.

Seafood Salad for a Crowd  (Seafood Salad NOT for a Crowd!)

3 8oz pkgs cooked frozen shrimp, thawed (1/2 8oz pkgs of cooked frozen shrimp, thawed)

2 lbs imitation crabmeat, cut into bite-sized pieces (1/2 lb imitation crabmeat, cut into pieces)

4 cucumbers, peeled and diced (1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced)

6 tomatoes, diced (1 tomato, diced)

1 bunch green onions, chopped (2 green onion pieces, chopped)

1 head lettuce (one heart of romaine, chopped)

4 avocados, halved, pitted and diced (1/2 avocado, diced)

Seasoned salt with onion and garlic to taste (season salt to taste)

2 16oz pkgs shredded Colby Jack cheese (sprinkle of cheese on finished salad)

Ranch dressing

Toss together all chopped, diced and cut vegetables.  Add shrimp and crabmeat.  Divide salad into individual bowls.  Top with Colby Jack cheese and dressing.

This salad was full of bright colors that put me in a much better mood than the cloudy gray skies outside.  The seasoned salt (I used my Tastefully Simple seasoned salt) gave the salad a little kick.

Stay tuned this week for a few other recipe reviews from the book!  Tonight we are having grilled chicken and zucchini wraps for dinner!

Do you want a copy of 101 Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches before it hits the bookstores?

How to Enter

We will be giving away ONE copy of the cookbook.  If you would like a chance to win, leave us a comment in this post and tell us what your favorite soup, salad or sandwich is.  Leave your comment before December 20 at 9:59 CST.  Don’t worry about being creative in your comment, the winner will be chosen by a random number generator.  Please make sure that you fill out the required fields by putting your first name in the name field and your email address in the email address field.  We do not share email addresses and you will not receive emails from Threaded Together unless you win.

Winners

We will choose ONE winner randomly and announce the results here on Threaded Together on December 20, 2011.

Rules

One comment per person per giveaway post.  Duplicate comments and anonymous comments will be discarded.  Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid so that we can contact you (email addresses are never made public).  Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize.  We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology.  No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that Threaded Together reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize.  Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state, and local taxes on the value of their prize.  Relatives of Threaded Together are not eligible to win.

Because this is a family site and we get a lot of spam comments, all comments on this site are moderated.  If you comment doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry!

Poppyseed Cake

It is beginning to look a bit like Christmas … and that means there are all kinds of get-togethers, at the office, in the neighborhood, etc.  This is an old stand-by, one of my favorite “go-to” recipes, especially when I haven’t planned ahead for something special!  I’ve got a meeting at work tomorrow morning and decided I needed to bring something in to share.  I conveniently keep the ingredients for this yummy cake on hand at all times.

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box butterscotch instant pudding

approx. 1 Tblsp. Poppy seeds (original recipe calls for 2 oz. — a small spice container — but, in this case I think “less is more” and can get 3-4 cakes out of one container)

1 cup water

4 eggs

2/3 cup oil

Powdered sugar

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients (except
powdered sugar).  Add water, eggs and
oil.  Mix on low speed for 30 seconds,
until well combined.  Mix on medium speed
for 2 minutes.  Pour into lightly greased
bundt pan.

Bake at 350° for 40-45
minutes (until tester comes out clean).
Let cool about 10 minutes and invert onto plate.  This also works well in loaf pans. Cool
completely and then dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Homemade Advent Calendar

My 7 year old son is a LEGO maniac.  Since he is so into building with his LEGO bricks, I decided to splurge on this:

If you buy LEGO products, you know that it was definitely a splurge…especially since I normally buy the dollar chocolate Advent calendars.  Once I decided to purchase this for my son, I knew I needed to come up with an idea for my daughter.  I contemplated the LEGO City Advent Calendar for her but I decided that while she would enjoy opening it up and putting the pieces together each day, it would ultimately end up in my son’s room.

I decided that I would make an Advent calendar myself using some of her favorite things.  I have to give credit to my friend, E, for the idea.  We researched different make-your-own Advent calendars on our favorite craft blogs and Pinterest, but nothing jumped out at us.  There is one that we want to sew but we knew that would we would be cutting it close!  That is when E saw the idea to tie up the little gifts in a candy roll style and hang it from a hook.  We gathered up our goodies and got to work!  For my daughter, I bought one package of Squinkies and I had a bag of Polly Pockets I had bought at a consignment store.  I also had My Little Ponies in my closet that I used.

E made four of them.  In her girls’ calendars, she tucked nail polish, lip gloss and candy.  In her little guy’s calendar she used a bunch of Hot Wheels she was regifting from her older son.  For her older son, it was LEGO Mini Figures and candy.  They don’t have to be expensive items.  They can be notes, candies, and more.

Making the Calendar

You need an inexpensive 2 ply with lining paper table cloth.  We used a red tablecloth that E picked up at Target for $3.00, ribbon, scissors, and your items.

Cut your tablecloth.  We started the project cutting the tablecloth on the short side because we wanted to make sure we got six calendars out of it.  Because we cut on the short side, we had to tie two panels together.  If you cut the long length, you shouldn’t have to combine more than one panel because it will be long enough.  We cut our strip 8 inches wide so that all of the items would fit.

Decide the pattern of your gifts.  If you are using all candy pieces, you can skip this step.  If you are mixing up candy and toys or notes, you will want to decide how to arrange it.  For example, E used 9 gifts (chapstick, nailpolish, Hot Wheel cars) and her pattern looked like this (the T stands for toy and the C stands for candy).

Tie off the top of your strip with curling ribbon.

Place your item in the tablecloth strip.

Twist the tablecloth around the item so that it covers it up and tie it off (kind of like a little piece of candy or sausage links).

Repeat until you have 25 links for the 25 days counting up until Christmas.

Curl the ribbon and hang from a hook.  You can make a little card with an initial or name to staple to the top of the Advent calendar.

I knotted the ribbon so that little fingers wouldn’t decide to give it a tug.  Each day, I am going to have my kids cut off the next surprise before the tied off ribbon.  I hope this becomes a yearly tradition!

Pie Crust

I was in the grocery store today and the refrigerator pie crusts were on sale for $2.29 for a brand that will remain nameless.  My first thought – I NEED TO GO INTO THE PIE CRUST MAKING BUSINESS!!!

Why?  Well, have you ever made your own pie crust before?  I hadn’t until four days ago.  It is RIDICULOUSLY easy. 

My husband and I were discussing our current food cravings and the first thing he wanted was a pumpkin pie.

“But sweetheart,” I told him, “I don’t have any pie crusts.”

My spoiled husband’s response was, “well can’t you just make one?”

I had never tried before and had no idea what went into it.  I explained to him I would probably have to use yeast and let the dough rise and all those fun things.  I also had NO motivation to go to the store to buy a pre-made pie crust.  I get an F- on that one.  I could not have been farther from correct.

Later in the day I turned to my trusty old allrecipes.com and looked up a pie crust recipe.  OMG, I cannot believe I have never made a pie crust in my 30 years.  It takes only four ingredients, and ten minutes of your time.  You know what else?  I think it made a BIG difference in the taste.  It was the best pumpkin pie I had ever eaten, even with our family’s well guarded secret recipe (I think Libby’s stole it though because last I checked it was on the back of their pumpkin pie can).

So here is the recipe for homemade pie crust.  Try it and see how yours tastes.

I have no picture because the pie disappeared far too quickly.  If I remember, I’ll post one next time (which according to my husband is going to be soon).

A Quick Donation Quilt

There’s a huge Christmas charity event that happens each year where I work. They poll area schools for 100 children to come out, ‘meet Santa’, attend a party, and…the best part…get presents.  This event is huge. I mean HUGE. They plan for it all year, host several fundraisers, and it always makes the local newspapers.  They allow the teachers to select the students and then they take it from there to make sure each child is taken care of.  I’ve seen it two years now and each time it makes me cry.

As the Christmas party gets closer, they have a silent auction to have one last fundraiser before the party. Each year I’ve wanted to donate something, but having time to prepare was always my problem (time is almost ALWAYS my problem). This year, though…this year I planned ahead and made a lap quilt to go in the auction.

I know it’s a simple design, but I’m a sucker for a good ol’ square patterned quilt.  I love the simplicity of them, the allowed randomness, and, I don’t know, I just like ‘em.  I made this one in red, white, and blue fabrics (that I bought in a yard sale!). While I did follow a diagonal blue and red pattern, I didn’t follow a pattern in how to arrange the various patterns of fabric. I used 9 different patterns and didn’t worry if one of the squares was touching the same pattern…I just went with it.

I did run into a little issue about which I’d like to give a ‘quilting tip’. I wasn’t paying close attention to how wide my quilt top was in relation to my back fabric. The top was about 2-3 inches wider than the back.  I really didn’t want to remove a row of squares and make it narrower  (the quilt measures 43″ wide and 56″ long).  So I started thinking…I made my bias tape for the edges and instead of making the top side equal to the bottom side, I simply made the bottom about twice the width as the top. You can see in the pictures what I mean.

Because I was using fabric from a ‘grab bag’ found in a yard sale, I was on a bit of a ‘budget’ for the backing fabric.  I didn’t have a large enough fabric piece to use for the entire back, so I ended up using four different fabrics (all were also used in the quilt top) to complete the back.  I was a bit afraid of how it would turn out, but now I love it. It’s truly a scrap quilt!

 (Pardon the junk on the shelves. The craft room is a work in progress.

Do you have any crafts or ideas that you frequently use for donation items?

My Little Black (Friday) Book

I. Love. Black Friday.

Black Friday is way more exciting to me then a turkey that had to cook all day and is eaten up in 15 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the together time with the family and the yummy food that was cooked lovingly but I spend the majority of Thanksgiving looking through the ads and making my game plan strategy.

We use Black Friday to pick up gifts for Christmas as well as things we have been eyeing for ourselves for awhile but just didn’t want to spend the money.  That being said, I Christmas shop for my family all year and I need somewhere to keep track of purchases and also to store coupons and receipts.  Usually I just pick up a new notebook but last year I was admiring my friend’s shopping notebook that she made herself.  I convinced her to help me and this morning we completed our project!

To make your own little Black Friday book, you will need the following:

• marbled composition notebook
• four pieces of cardstock
• stickers or paper to use for decorative elements
• glue stick
• two sandwich bags

Beef Tortellini Soup

October is one of my favorite months…I love the sights, smells, and tastes of fall!  Even here along the Florida Gulf Coast there is a little chill in the air, especially in the evening. I was done with soups last spring, now I’m tired of salads — it is time again for soup!  This is one of my favorites, and it is also one of those easy-to-keep-all-of-the-ingredients-on-hand-in-case-you-have-impromptu-company kind of recipes.  It is fairly economical and healthy, and can even be made meatless (but then I would probably “beef” up the veggies).

I love this recipe and it is very “forgiving” … if you can’t find frozen French cut green beans, then use canned.  If you’re watching the budget, get a bag of
frozen tortellini and use those cute little bouillon cubes with water for the beef broth. Every ingredient can be adjusted to taste, or doubled/tripled to
make a larger pot of soup. In fact, this is such a rich, hearty soup, if you’re trying to stretch it for a large group (or for extra leftovers!) you can just add
2-3 more cups of water and an extra bouillon cube without it tasting “watered down”!

Note:  This recipe doesn’t lend itself well to the crock pot … the tortellini tend to absorb the liquid and EXPLODE in size.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained (I also rinse mine with hot water)

1 large can crushed tomatoes

6 cups of beef broth

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1  package frozen French
cut green beans

1 – 9 oz. package “fresh” cheese tortellini (usually found in refrigerator section of your local grocery store)

1 medium zucchini, grated (skin on)

1 tsp. dried basil

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

 
Directions:

In a large pot on top of the stove, cook the onions in the beef broth until tender.

Add all of the other ingredients, except for the tortellini. Bring to a boil and then lower heat, cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tortellini and cook until done.

Serve with a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese (optional).

Serve with a salad and nice crusty bread and you’ve got a hearty meal to chase the chill away!

Makes 4-6 servings.

Enjoy!

Joan’s Homemade Hummus

I LOVE hummus … I do NOT love paying for it in the grocery store, especially for the good stuff; in addition, when you make it yourself you can control the ingredients/taste – I added some extra garlic to mine.  Jen alerted me to her friend Briony’s blog several months ago, Freeze Your Way Fit, and this yummy recipe for homemade hummus.  Full disclosure here – I make a HUGE mess in the kitchen when I make this recipe so I make a lot of it at one time. I can fit 3 “batches” into my 9 cup Kitchen Aid food processor; this time I made a total of 6 “batches”. Tahini is the most expensive ingredient, and it is also the messiest!  Even our local Walmart here in L.A. (lower Alabama, also known as NW Florida) carries tahini, $4.75 for the amount needed to make all of these batches — it probably cost me about $12.00 to make all of the hummus shown below.

Ingredients (for one batch – multiply by 3 to fill a 9 cup food processor):

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I grew up calling these garbanzo beans!)

1 small garlic glove, minced

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground cumin

Pinch of cayenne (red) pepper

3 Tbsp. juice from lemons (I uses concentrate this time and it worked just as well)

¼ cup water

6 Tbsp. tahini, stirred well

2 Tsp. extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Step One:  Put chickpeas, garlic, salt, cumin, and cayenne in a food processor; process until fully ground. Scrape down sides with a spatula. Make sure all parts of the food processor are put together before you put the ingredients in!

Step Two:  With the food processor running, slowly add the lemon juice and water and continue to process for one minute.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula again.

Step Three:  In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini (easier said than done – it is the consistency of tile grout!) and 2 Tbsp. oil.

With the food processor still running, add the oil-tahini mixture in a steady stream through the feed tube.  Continue to process until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as needed.

Can be served immediately with crackers.  Refrigerate any not used immediately. Also freezes beautifully!  Freeze small portions. Reheat in the microwave for 30 seconds on full power, stir, and heat another 5-10 seconds.  If it seems a little dry, just add a little bit of olive oil.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon Style)

I know I have hit the nail on the head when my husband tells me I have outdone myself.  He is definitely a foodie, and VERY honest when it comes to the stuff I set in front of him.  He does not spare my feelings when it comes to his food opinions.  I know in seconds whether the recipe is a keeper in his book.  I also know when I need to immediately toss it, or if it is so amazing he doesn’t even know what to with himself (see the chocolate bomb recipe from the “30 Days and 30 Bites” challenge as well as the peanut butter cupcakes…yum!!!). 

When I made these pumpkin cinnamon rolls, he went on, and on, and on, and on about how delicious every single bite was.  Not just for one roll.  When he had leftovers the next day he did the same thing.  And the day after that.  I have to agree with him.  This is one darn good cinnamon roll.

I adapted the recipe from this one I found at allrecipes.com (you know how much I love that site).  The original recipe is fantastic on its own, so if you are looking for a plain Cinnabon style sweet roll, try it as is.  After having made it several times, I decided to make a few alterations for something just for fall.

This is a dough you can use the bread machine for (below), but you can also make it by hand if you are familiar with proofing yeast and the two rise times needed.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
• 1 cup pumpkin puree

Cinnamon Filling:

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened

Glaze:

• 3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
3. Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt.
5. Remove rolls from oven and invert on a serving plate.  Leave the pan over the rolls for at least five minutes to allow the caramel from the pan to soak into the rolls.
6. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

I highly recommend making the rolls the night BEFORE.  Who really wants to make these first thing in the morning?  If you make them the night ahead follow these directions instead: Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Also, I only cook six rolls the next day for the four of us.  I freeze the other six for another time.  So here is what I do: Place 6 rolls in a lightly greased 8×8 baking pan (or round). Place the other 6 rolls in the same size freezer-friendly pan.

Place both pans in refrigerator over night. They will slowly rise overnight. In the morning, remove from fridge at least 20 minutes prior to baking to bring to room temperature. Place the freezer-friendly pan in the freezer and save for another day (if you let it stay in the fridge the next day it will deflate so don’t forget to transfer it! To thaw, simply place in fridge overnight and follow the rest of the directions).  Bake rolls as directed in step 4, but you will probably require an extra 5 to 15 minutes depending on how cold they still are from the freezer.

These are simply to die for and you will find yourself making them over and over again!

On Motivation…

Another non-crafty post from me.  However, this has been hanging on my heart as something I wanted to share, so I decided to take the time to do so.  It’s a bit long, so allow yourself a minute to read it!

Summer is over, it’s time to get back into professional working mode and just plain old getting things done. That’s what fall is for, right? Ugh! Are you having any trouble getting motivated to accomplish the items on your to do list??? I know I most certainly am.

Today I am going to explain to you how I motivated myself to help accomplish one of my biggest goals right now. The goal? To complete my second marathon this year (and ever!). The motivation???

That’s right…donuts. Of the dunkin’ kind to be specific. So how in the world did donuts motivate me to improve my marathon training? Well, let me give you a little background here.

My training for the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington D.C. began in June of this year (2011). Right in the middle of summer vacation. At Disney World. Ummm, yeah. Right. Then, we finished vacationing in north Florida. Then we went here, and then we went there, and then we were busy with this and that and the other. Before I knew it, I was back to work at my job as a high school teacher.

Prior to the start of the school year I had only been consistently “on schedule” with training for exactly one week. Every other week over the summer I had missed a day, or ran a shorter run due to time, etc. So much for the goal I had for setting a personal best this fall. Maybe next time.

My work schedule is quite impossible when it comes to fitting in a marathon training schedule. I have to leave my house to be at work at 6:45. Let me rephrase that…I have to leave my house at 6:45a.m. with two clothed, teeth and hair brushed, lunches prepared and backpacks packed, fed children, two fed and WALKED (for at least 15 minutes) dogs, and a showered, hair done, nicely dressed, paperwork in order, lunch packed, me. Six. Forty. Five.  Out the door.

Our evenings - FAR too busy for me to ever schedule a run. Not to mention, that is our family time. Time we take very seriously and demand of ourselves. Homework completed in the afternoons, sit down dinners every night, 30 minutes of reading together. Not to mention again, our extracurricular activities. I am not even going to get into THAT today!

Does this sound like your life at all? How are we supposed to accomplish anything else if our schedule already sounds like that??? Maybe for you it is not running. Maybe it’s a craft project or a novel you want to write. Maybe a book you want to read or a room you want to clean out. How do we get this stuff done?

Well, for me, I realized, I had to be truly genuine with my priorities.  What was important to me?  I committed myself to this run.  As a matter of fact, I am raising money and running for a great cause at the MCM this year.  How was I going to fit those five mile runs in during the week?  The only solution possible for my schedule is to pull myself out of bed early.  EARLY.  I already wake up at 5:00am.

That meant somehow finding the motivation to get up at 4:30am, or earlier, to fit in a good 4 mile run (the shortest run I do during the week).  ***See, you knew I was going to connect to the top of this post somehow, right?*** 

I tried, over and over again, but every time I even thought about doing it, I found a million excuses not to.  I didn’t have the right dark running gear, I was too tired (uh…), I had too much work to do the night before.  I became awesome at talking myself out of trying a morning run.

Silly me, I found it.  The motivation.  Donuts.  Donuts that I didn’t even eat.  The first week of school I promised my homeroom class I would get them donuts Friday if they had all of their paperwork turned in to me.  These are high school kids.  I wasn’t expecting them to actually do it!  Well, they all had it all turned in on Wednesday.  This, of course, meant breakfast was on me.  I had to finagle my whole morning schedule to stop at the not-so-on-the-way donut shop to get 3 dozen donuts before school.

As my alarm went off at 4:30am that morning, it hit me.  I was getting up to do this because I made a promise to my students and I couldn’t let them down.  Why was I not able to make the same promise to myself to get up and run?  So I did exactly that.  That morning I promised myself I was going to at least give a morning run a try first thing next week.

It was literally as easy as that.  I suppose that is what an epiphany does.  It lets you see the light.  For me, this light was being honest and true to myself.  I knew I really wanted to run in the morning.  If there is something you really want to do you have to give yourself that self-talk that motivates you to do it.  No one else is going to pull you out of bed.  No one else is going to put the paint brush in your hand, or the pen, or whatever tool it is your goals require.  Only you can decide how important it is to you.

So make an intentional, driven choice to begin, and finish, something.  If you can’t do that for yourself it must not be important enough to do.  Make the decision to either do or don’t do and get that project out from hanging over your head.

I am now running at least twice a week in the mornings.  Mostly Tuesday and Wednesday.  Friday’s are 8 and 10 mile runs for me right now, which is too much even for me to do in the morning.  I carry a flashlight and wear reflective gear and I give myself at least 20 minutes after waking up to eat and have a glass of water before I run out the door.  I also carry my cell phone (I have watched one too many episodes of Law and Order) and I stay close to my house.  I go to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 at night (which I thought I would HATE and I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it) so I am up and ready to go at 4:30am.  We also do a great job organizing our lives for the morning before we go to bed.  Lunches made, coffee pot ready to brew, bags packed, clothes laid out, house clean.  It is amazing how much this has helped us organize our lives too.

Whatever you are looking for motivation to help you with, decide whether or not you REALLY want to do it.  If the answer is yes, then do it.  I found, the harder it is to get started doing something, the bigger the rewards are when you actually finish it!

Sorry for the novel!