I love to bake bread, wheat bread, white bread, artisan bread, sour dough bread and I have recently realized that even if I make awesome bread, I can make it better when I spread on the honey butter.

I love recipes that I have all of the ingredients in my cupboard all the time, and this is one of them.

Honey Butter

1/2 Cup Butter (Room Temperature)

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Honey

1 tsp Cinnamon

Blend all ingredients with a food processor or hand mixer at room temperature until mixed.

Store in a small tuperware in the fridge.  Keep it on hand to put on your warm, fresh out of the oven, home baked bread.

I have been reading about the dangers of fluoride for the past year how fluoride is a neurotoxic substance and can cause brain damage, how it can reduce IQ levels, how ingesting large amounts can cause kidney damage and kidney disease, can cause bone cancer. I have read how many people are against cities water treatment plants putting fluoride in our drinking water without our permission and often times the additional amount can be unregulated and testing can show the added amounts sometimes the levels are dangerously high.

The main reason our country adds fluoride to our water supply is to protect teeth, but when children are exposed to excessive levels of fluoride it results in dental fluorosis that will actually destroy teeth by making them mottled and rotting them from the inside out.  This is why you should store your fluoride toothpaste out of reach of your young children and why they have training toothpaste to teach children how to spit out all toothpaste.

I am against adding fluoride to city water.  Only 10 countries in the world add fluoride to their drinking water and 50% of all treated water is in North America. Most dental research confirms that fluoride’s main benefit comes from direct topical application to teeth not from a systemic application by ingesting it.    Since I do not have a home reverse osmosis filter to remove fluoride that is placed in my water, and my fridge filter does not eliminate fluoride, I decided to do what I could to try to minimize fluoride exposure.

I have all along had my kids brushing with training toothpaste once per day, and fluoride toothpaste at nighttime.  My son is now four and can easily spit out his toothpaste, so I am comfortable with him using fluoride toothpaste occasionally when I am supervising him.  I figure since they can’t avoid the systemic treatment when drinking water every day or taking a bath, they get plenty of fluoride as part of their daily lives.  Our pediatric dentist office claims that children under the age of 6 don’t need any more fluoride than they get from drinking city water because the risk of overexposure is so much more dangerous.

I started brushing with Natural, fluoride free toothpaste, stopped using fluoride toothpaste for six months.   I have been going to the same dental office for about 4 years now and I had two perfect checkups in a row.  I get annual x-rays per my insurance. I am not going to say my teeth are perfect, but my teeth health is important to me, you only get one set of adult teeth so I want to take care of them.

After 6 months of brushing multiple times per day with non fluoridated toothpaste and going in last week for a checkup. I did not share my fluoride free test with my dentist and hygienist so they had no idea what changes I made in my life since the last time they saw me.  The dentist showed me my digital x-rays that showed shadows of three cavities forming on the surface of my teeth despite the fact that I brush and floss daily. He was concerned at the rapid changes in my teeth.  He told me that none of the shadows in my enamel were cavities yet, but they would be in six months to a year.  He suggested I start using ACT Fluoride mouthwash, I could buy a fluoride gel treatment like they apply for kids, or buy a high fluoride content toothpaste and I might be able to fight off those cavities.

Since I could see the x-ray proof right in front of my eyes compared to the last x-ray 1 year before, I said very interesting.  I opted out of their treatments and chose to run over to Wal-Mart and pick up a bottle of ACT fluoride mouthwash and a new tube of Colgate fluoride toothpaste.   I came home threw away my natural fluoride free toothpaste and I decided I am back on fluoride.

I hope I am able to reverse the presence of these three cavities forming on my top layer of enamel, but if not, I learned a very expensive lesson on the importance of topical application of fluoride on my teeth.

Tacos are good. Tacos with home made flour tortillas are awesome!

One day I was going to make shredded chicken tacos for dinner, everything was almost finished, chopped the veggies, reached in the crisper drawer, and there were no flour tortillas!  I almost fainted!  My son was napping so I could not just run to the store, it was cold and snowy outside, so I didn’t feel like making a special trip to the store. I decided it was time to figure out how to make my own flour tortillas.

I started researching and there were not very many recipes for flour tortillas out there, plenty for corn tortillas but we are Minnesotans, we only use corn tortillas when we are really feeling crazy!   Many recipes included lard, or shortening, some had tons of oil, I wanted to make some that were not super bad for me and used ingredients that I always have in my house, and no, I don’t have any lard in my house!

Spend about an extra 15 minutes on cooking up your own tortillas, regular store tortillas don’t compare.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Teaspoons of Vegetable Oil

3/4 Cup of Lukewarm Milk

Spray Canola Oil

Salt shaker

Rolling Pin

Directions:

Stir together the wet ingredients, mix together the dry ingredients and slowly add to the wet.

Just mix it with your hands, you need to use your hands to get it all mixed in and incorporate any dry ingredients into the dough ball.

Divide the well mixed dough ball into 8 balls.  Pat each ball flat on a clean flat surface.

Heat a skillet to medium heat.

Using a rolling Pin roll out each ball into about an 8 inch circle, trying to make it as flat as possible.  (Mine are not always round, some look like amoebas, but as long as they can hold the food, they taste the same)

Transfer rolled flat tortilla onto the hot skillet, spray one side with one quick burst of spray canola oil cooking spray and a sprinkle of salt.

Cook for about 30 seconds on each side and flip.  They should be slightly golden brown.

They will come out chewy on the center, with a nice crust on the outside, they puff up slightly when cooking.

I store them in aluminum foil to keep them warm until dinner is served.

After you eat your first one plain, you will see how much better a taco tastes with a fresh, warm, home made tortilla!

When you master this, jazz them up with adding other spices to the recipe, like some chili powder, cayenne pepper, or cumin.

When my daughter was born six years ago, I carefully followed the car seat recommendations, used the infant car seat until she was 20 lbs, moved her to a convertible car seat when she was too heavy for her infant seat, made sure I waited until her first birthday to turn her convertible car seat forward facing, kept her in her convertible car seat until she was too big for her five point harness straps, then moved her into a high back booster seat at age 3.   The  current recommendations have changed!

Current Minnesota Car seat Law is as follows:

• All children age 7 and under must ride in a federally approved car seat or booster seat, unless the child is 4’9″ or taller.
• Safety seats must be installed and used according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Infants (under 20 pounds and one year of age) must be in a rear-facing safety seat.
• Driver is responsible.
• Petty misdemeanor fine for violation is $50
• Applies to both residents and non-residents of Minnesota.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends keeping children rear-facing until 2 years old if possible.  Legally you need to keep them rear facing until age 1 and 20 lbs.  Protect their fragile neck and spine from accidents by keeping them rear facing as long as possible.  Some car seats can accommodate rear facing children until age 4.

Children should remain in a forward facing, harnessed car seat until they are 4 years old or as long as they can comfortably fit and are within the car seat manufacturers recommended height and weight allowances.  Many 5 point harness car seats sold today accommodate children up to 65 pounds.

Don’t move to the booster seat especially the backless booster seat until they are 40 lbs, and 4 years old.  They will remain in a booster seat for a long time,  until age 8.

Children are not ready for a seat belt only until they can sit safely in the seat belt, with the lap belt across their thighs and the shoulder harness across their shoulder and chest, not across their neck.  They are legally not ready until they are age 8 and 4 foot 9 inches in Minnesota!

If your car seat is older than 6 years throw it away and buy a new one!!  Your child’s life is worth it!  I cringe when I see people using a car seat clearly made in the 80’s, the technology improves constantly to keep your children safe, please don’t use an outdated car seat.

Keep your kids in the backseat!  Children should remain in the backseat until age 13!! They are used to riding in the back of the car, they will have plenty of time to ride in the dangerous front seat when they learn to drive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40986460@N02/6150727282/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This is an excellent visual for knowing which type of car seat to choose and the safest age ranges for each.