How to make Vegan Banana Bread

If you are wondering how to make vegan banana bread here is a recipe I like to use a lot.

Ingredients

3 medium overripe bananas

1/3 cup organic granulated sugar

1/3 cup organic brown sugar

1/3 cup canola oil (or your favorite baking oil)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, vegan chocolate chips, or your favorite banana bread stir-in)

For Topping

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

2. Lightly oil a 9-inch loaf pan and arrange a strip of parchment paper width-wise along the center, with just a bit hanging out over each side.

3. Peel the bananas and place them into a large mixing bowl. Mash them well with a fork or potato masher.

4. Add sugar, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla to the bowl. Stir until well-mixed.

5. Add the flour to the bowl, then sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon, and salt on top of the flour.

5. Stir everything together just until mixed. Don't overmix. The batter will be thick.

6. Fold in the walnuts.

7. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top with the back of a spoon.

8. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar.

9. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

10. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer it to a cooling rack. Allow the loaf to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing it from the pan.

11. Slice and serve.

Wicked the Musical Conspiracy Theories

1. The Wicked Witch isn't Wicked

Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them? Perhaps they're not really wicked at all. The premise of the book / musical Wicked is that the Wicked Witch of the West, a.k.a. Elphaba, is really the hero of the whole story, and not the villain.

But how can that be? Here's an absurdly brief breakdown. Things are going wrong in Oz, so Elphaba (the 'Wicked' Witch) goes to find the Wizard and asks him to help put things right. It turns out that of all the issues in Oz are the Wizard's doing. Whichever version of this story you read, the Wizard is always a bad guy.

Elphaba, who just wants to do the right thing, flies off the handle and both literally and

lyrically defies gravity. Now, the Wizard needs a scapegoat and doesn't want anybody to believe what Elphaba says about his own wickedness, so he makes everybody believe that Elphaba herself is wicked, and thus she becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

2. The Good Witch isn't Good

This theory has been voiced at different levels, starting at 'she could have said about the shoes earlier', and ending at 'maybe she dropped the house on the Wicked Witch of the East herself, and manipulated the whole story'. It does seem a bit suspicious that Glinda the Good gains so much power from the events that transpire; who's to say that she didn't plan the whole thing?

Wicked presents a less black and white option: that Glinda (or, Galinda) is fundamentally good, but not initially as brave as her close friend, the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba).

3. The Wicked Witch of the West survives

The Wizard of Oz would say that she dies. And Wicked the book would agree, but Wicked the musical suggests that it was all a ruse.

In the story of Wicked the musical, the idea that Elphaba could be 'melted' with water is a rumour spun by her enemies as a way of making her seem super evil. So what really happens? Well, she fakes her own death so that she can escape Oz with the Scarecrow … who just happens to be the love of her life, Fiyero.

That said, even within Wicked the musical it could be argued that the 'escape' of Elphaba and Fiyero is metaphorical and, when they say that they can never come back to Oz, it's because they have both died. A more sombre ending, since we've just spent two hours becoming emotionally invested in the character of the (framed) Wicked Witch … maybe it's best to believe that she does survive.

4. Dorothy is actually the Witch of the East

Admittedly, we're getting into slightly more tenuous grounds. This theory is based on the observation that, in Oz, Dorothy meets alternative versions of several 'real life' characters, but never an alternative version of herself. Is there one? Strangely, the only thing that we know about the Wicked Witch of the East is her shoe size, and that fits … coincidence?

5. The Wizard is Willy Wonka's Father

This suggestion is equally as tenuous, but extremely enjoyable. Essentially, it comes from the observation that the land of Oz and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory have two major things in common: red roads / red carpets (seen nowhere else in filmic history ever, right?) and Munchkins / Oompa Loompas.

In this theory, the red part of the spiral at the beginning of the yellow brick road ends up at the red carpet leading up to the Chocolate Factory. Oh, and Willy Wonka went to Oz in search of his father, was unsuccessful, so came back with Munchkins instead (who he renamed so as to protect their identity). Seems like a pretty infallible theory to me.

Thank you for joining me and reading some amazing Wicked theories that may be true! Source: https://www.onstageblog.com/columns/2017/10/1/weird-and-wonderful-conspiracy-theories-the-wizard-of-oz-and-wicked

Ways to get rid of Art Block

Here are some ways to get through art block if you are an artist like me. Go outside! The reason you can't think it's probably if you're stuck in a bedroom or studio. Take your sketchbook with you and find a landscape you can sketch; then later, paint. You could always get advice from friends or family. Always ask others for ideas when you have art block, they can provide prompts from their style which may be hard for you to draw. If you really want to.... use a prompt generator. Go online and search https://www.magatsu.net/generators/art/index.php I use it all the time. Hopefully this helped some people with art block!