I did it! I did it! I cooked lunch for mom and myself today from scratch. No cans, no recipes, just me, my bag of lentils and some fresh vegetables. And it turned out good. Mom looked a little dubious at first and said it looked like mexican food, but her eyebrows perked up on the taste-test and said, "Hai bu tsuo, o" which means "not too bad" in English. And she said that when she wasn't even very hungry which means that it must be good, especially when there's no meat in it (mom is blatantly anti-vegetarian, and I'm pretty sure that what I made is a vegan meal...). I thought it was quite yummy myself, though it wasn't the prettiest piece of gourmet cuisine in the world - mom likened it to Taco Bell mexican stuff. I don't really think it looks like Taco Bell per se, and it certainly tastes better and is much healthier. What really surprised me about this cooking experiment is that I didn't measure anything out at all, just a pinch of pepper here, some salt there, and things came out really well. Perhaps I have a knack for cooking? We'll find out when I make lentil stew I suppose.