I'm no microwave Julia Child

I have officially reached new heights (or lows) of laziness and incompetence. It's not bad enough that I live in a tiny NYC apartment with a tiny kitchen that NEVER gets used for cooking - my oven is used for storage, and my fridge is pretty much always empty. Now, I no longer can even tolerate microwave cooking. It's too annoying with all the weird directions. I just made this Healthy Choice frozen meal that had three different food courses - pasta, veggies and some apple crisp thing. According to the directions, I was supposed to peel a corner open of the apple section, then slit a hole in the broccoli part. Then cook the entree on high for 3-1/2 minutes (turning halfway through). THEN, I was supposed to stir the apple thing, recover and cook at 50% for another minute and a half. THEN, let the entree stand for 1 to 2 minutes and carefully remove the wrap before eating.

Seriously? This is supposed to be an easy "heat and eat" meal. I don't have the time nor the patience to follow all those directions. If I did I would just cook like a normal person! And how the hell do you set the microwave at 50%? I mean, I realize my microwave has a ton of buttons, but I've never actually used more than the numbers and the "start" and "stop" buttons. I can't be bothered with calibrating all sorts of settings on my microwave. I don't even want to know what all the other buttons are for.

In a rebellious stance, I didn't follow the directions exactly. In fact, I just shoved the entire dinner in the microwave, set it for 5 minutes and pressed "start." Of course, the dinner sucked, but it's a microwave dinner! It's supposed to suck, right? Or now do you have to have some sort of culinary talent to prepare a microwave meal? Will the community college be offering night and weekend courses on microwave cooking? Why must everything be so damn complicated!?