I like to cook BIG batches of one-dish meals and then freeze them in meal-sized portions. There's a certain smug sense of satisfaction that comes with pulling out a labeled block, pushing a few buttons, and dishing out a fabulous home-cooked meal...

Here's allrecipes.com's Dinner in an Instant selection, sorted into 20, 30, and 45-minute meals.

One of my favorite "speed dinners" is pasta-n-sausage - stick a million knife holes in the sausage (or get a trustworthy kid to do that part) and microwave in a covered Pyrex container, cook your noodles or spaghetti al dente, and open a can of your favorite crushed or diced tomatoes. Add the sausage juice to the pasta too, chop up the sausages, serve with Parmesan cheese, and mangia!

Love, Columbine