el, Not sure I understand the question. Are you talking about making a whole meal like meat, potatoes, vegetable and all that or are you talking about cooking a T.V.Dinner? I was thinking the whole meal until you mentioned washing dishes, then you lost me. Cooking a meal in the microwave is not nearly as good as going it in the oven or on the top of the stove. It would taste better cooked in a crock pot than the microwave. You can do a roast with potatoes and carrots and have a good meal at a low cost compared to doing it in the oven or microwave.If you want to go into this a little deeper I might be able to help more.