This Italian Red Wine Roast Beef slowly cooks in the crock-pot creating an unforgettable dinner with almost no effort at all.

This smells absolutely fantastic as it slowly cooks through the day.

Crockpot Roast Beef

I could hardly wait to taste this pot roast the first time I made it and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Seasoned with a light blend of Italian spices and then cooked in red wine, served with Baby Red Potatoes and Roasted Green Beans this roast is happily eaten by every member of the family.

I’ve been making this Red Wine Roast Beef for a few years now and it never fails to impress. This recipe was originally inspired by a recipe I found over at allrecipes.com. I’ve simplified it over time and the whole family enjoys it.

The aroma, while it cooks, is almost as amazing as the resulting meat. I could eat this roast beef every week all year long with no complaints.

Red Wine Roast Beef

What really makes this Italian roast beef recipe stand out is the red wine that it cooks in. I use a dry red like cabernet or a merlot to fill this roast with delicious flavor. (Not a big wine drinker? I buy these tiny bottles of wine and stash them in the pantry. I use one small bottle each time we make this roast recipe.)

The red wine gives this meat a whole extra dimension of taste. It tastes better than any roast beef I’ve had at a restaurant but is incredibly simple and easy to make. This is a standard dinner time main dish for us by now but we never ever get tired of eating it.

I first made this pot roast with red wine by baking it in the oven. The meat was perfectly tender and fell apart on the fork easily. I had a feeling the recipe would work well in the slow-cooker, too and I was right.

Apple Sausage Breakfast Burritos

Well, I’m hooked. These Apple Sausage Breakfast Burritos are the yummiest Breakfast Burritos I’ve had so far. It’s a little cheesy, a lot of fluffy eggs and Aidell’s Chicken Breakfast sausage which completely makes the whole meal. I’ve already got my mind whirling with new recipes to use that breakfast sausage in and I’m generally not a very big breakfast meat person. I’ve had too many flavorless, overly greasy sausages that I kinda just stopped eating it. Then Macey’s was sampling Aidell’s and it was wonderful.

This kind happens to be my favorite, at least so far, because of the extra ingredient…

Apples. The apples add the tiniest bit of a sweet crunch to the breakfast sausage. We love it and it pairs perfectly with the cheesy eggs.

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Understanding the impact of our words, and how they can perpetuate stigma

Language holds an invisible power over our lives. More than a collection of words and phrases, it is a vehicle for ideas and experiences, and plays a significant role in shaping how we make sense of the world. While we may not always be aware of it, the words we wield can also be weapons. They can inflict harm and cause pain, sometimes without our realising.

Casual ableism is a routine occurrence in our language. It shows up in everyday expressions, throwaway remarks, and off-the-cuff sayings which perpetuate harmful assumptions and misconceptions about disabilities and mental illnesses. With each time we describe a dull event as ‘so depressing,’ a recollection of frustration as ‘giving me PTSD’, or an occasional habit as ‘a bit OCD,’ casual ableism is increasingly normalised within our cultural vernacular.

In her book, On The Offensive, linguist Dr Karen Stollznow highlights how mental health conditions are often exaggerated through colloquial phrases used to discuss undesirable traits or character flaws: an egotistical politician is described as a ‘narcissist’; a friend who worries that other people don’t like them is ‘paranoid’; and a colleague who has difficulty focusing on one task has ‘ADHD’. This metaphorising of mental illness both trivialises complex conditions, and fuels their association with negative qualities.

“My biggest pet peeve is when people say, ‘I’m literally obsessed with__,’” explains Kayla Kaplan, who was diagnosed with OCD, ADHD, a non-verbal learning disorder in her mid-teens, and, more recently, with PTSD. “It paints obsession as a synonym to really liking something and, in my experience, literal obsessions feel horrible. Being unable to get your brain to stop obsessing over something is one of the most helpless feelings, and it shows me that people who misuse the word have no concept of what it actually means.”

Bev Herscovitch, a healthcare and disability advocate, suggests that these throwaway sayings can lead people with mental illnesses to feel unsafe and isolated, potentially preventing them from opening up to others, or seeking support when they need it. Speaking of her own experience as someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety, she says “It makes me feel overwhelmed because I realise there’s so much more work to be done in just erasing stigma and raising awareness.”

More troubling than individuals using mental health terminology in this casual way, however, is organisations and businesses treating them as trends. “I’ve often come across merchandise that says: ‘OCD (Obsessive Christmas Disorder or Obsessive Cat Disorder),’” Kayla comments. “To misappropriate a diagnosis for profit is a whole other level of hurt, and it normalises doing so at a massive scale.”

Of course, not everyone who utters these sayings intends to cause harm. More often than not, people simply reproduce ubiquitous turns of phrase without much knowledge about their origins or implications. Our use of language is habitual, rooted in ritual and convention. When we reach into our mental lexicon, searching for the right phrase to describe a t

Hi friends! I’ve missed you! This is the longest I’ve been away from blogging for a long time, but I’m back now and excited to chat with you. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that those of my parent friends with kids heading back to school have an amazing week.

We’re back from Hawaii and I have so much to say. It was our first time in Oahu, and it was seriously the most magical, beautiful, relaxing trip. I feel so refreshed and my heart is very happy after a week away. It’s been a whirlwind couple of months (Vegas, staycation, dance competitions, family in town, and then our entire family got sick) and this was the perfect way to cap off an awesome summer.

I’m excited to share a recap from our trip, some of the adventures we enjoyed, and some of the food we ate!

The FOOD. It was everything.. and I’m still having malasada withdrawals….

(These are the malasadas from Duke’s Market, which we had a few times. They’re made from rice flour, slightly crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. The purple ube one was my fave, followed by the haupia filled one. Haupia is a gorgeous coconut custard. #2 on the list of best donuts in my life)

One of the best parts is that my mom was able to join us! The Pilot had to work some of the days we were there, so we asked if we could fly her out to join us. We were all so pumped that she was able to make it and we had the best time with her there.

Our Waikiki Recap (+ what to do and where to stay)

Waikiki adventures:

Beach days

I knew that the kids would be happier just going to the beach than planning excursions with lots of travel time, and that was exactly correct. Also, for many of the snorkeling or sea turtle adventures, you need

What is sapiosexuality, what does it mean, and how can it affect our relationships?

Attraction. Sometimes it can be hard to define but there’s no denying that we like what we like, and exploring and embracing those desires can be great not only for our relationships, but our mental health, wellbeing, and sexual satisfaction.

If you’ve ever found yourself feeling more attracted to someone’s mind over their body, it could be a sign that you may be sapiosexual.

What does it mean to be sapiosexual?

Sapiosexuality means that you find intelligence sexually attractive or arousing. A type of sexuality, in order to feel sexually attracted to someone, sapiosexuals first have to feel intellectually stimulated.

In use since 1998, the term has become more mainstream since the mid-2010s, when dating sites began including sapiosexual as a sexual orientation option. The term itself is derived from the Latin sapere, meaning to be wise or to have sense.

If you are sapiosexual, the first thing you might notice about a potential partner is likely to be their intelligence. You find the way other people’s minds work, or how intellectual they are, to be attractive. You may not find other common points of attraction people talk about (e.g. height, shape, hair colour, humour, body type, facial features) to be something that you find attractive or stimulating in and of itself. Sapiosexuals often do not feel lust, desire, or sexual gratification without first being stimulated on an intellectual level.

Can anyone be sapiosexual?

Anyone can identify as sapiosexual alongside being heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, or any number of other sexualities. You may find yourself attracted to men, women, those who identify as trans, nonbinary, genderfluid, or those of any gender or sexual identity.

One 2011 study revealed that intelligence may actually be one of the top three traits we look for in a potential partner – meaning attraction to intelligence could be a lot more common than we realise.

Is sapiosexuality the same as demisexuality?

Being demisexual is not the same as being sapiosexual. Someone who is demisexual needs to form an emotional bond before they can feel sexual or romantic attraction. A sapiosexual may immediately feel attraction if they experience intellectually stimulating conversations or debates.

Is sapiosexuality really an orientation?

As a relatively new term, it does come with some controversy, as some believe sapiosexuality is not an orientation, but a type of attraction (alongside types of attraction such as romantic, emotional, sexual, physical, or platonic). However, many who describe themselves as sapiosexual say that intelligence, for them, is more than just one quality they appreciate in a potential partner: it is the driving force behind their sexual attraction.

For some, using the term can be seen as controversial, as some critics have called sapiosexuality a form of discrimination, as well as calling it elitist, Read more