MADtv Recurring Characters - 3 Minute Meal

3 Minute Meal is a cooking show with a format similar to that of Rachael Ray's "30 Minute Meals". It is hosted by Wendy Walker (Crista Flanagan), nicknamed the "queen of quick cuisine". In each sketch, she attempts to prepare a fairly simple dish, but is hampered by unfortunate occurrences, some of which involve bodily harm. The show also includes an on-screen timer whose loud ticking noise is evidently audible on set, disturbing Walker as she tries to cook.

During the run of MADtv, from 1995 to 2009, the sketch appeared 3 times. In the first episode, Walker attempts to prepare tuna melts, but ends up preparing "tuna and bread" after she knocks an open can of tuna off the counter and experiences difficulties while opening a mayonnaise jar and a bag of bread. The second episode has a Valentine's Day theme, and features Walker attempting to prepare a banana split. The ice cream, however, is frozen solid, and she burns herself on it after microwaving it. After placing over-ripe bananas on a plate, she discovers that the walnuts in the set's kitchen are whole, not chopped. She slices one of her fingertips off trying to crack the walnuts with a knife; she places it on the plate at the end, as if it were a cherry. The final episode was filmed "on location" at the University of Michigan football stadium, where she attempts to prepare chili dogs. Her misfortune begins when she is placed in an Ohio State University sweatshirt on the Michigan side of the parking lot, and continues as she burns herself on a grill, discovers that her hot dogs have frozen solid in her cooler, and is pelted with footballs by angry Michigan fans. The episode ends with Walker being struck by a van.