Cooking at Home: Why is it such a pain in the ass?

I just moved into a new apartment, with the kitchen, though very small, being one of its selling features. I'm also now living with my boyfriend. I thought the intersection of these two things would lead to much cooking at home and much money saved, but instead, the opposite appears to be happening. We've eaten out three of the past four weeknights. Below are some of my corrective measures.

• Here's why cooking at home is such a pain in the ass: dishes. No matter where your recipe or inspiration comes from, there are going to be dishes. (Unless you're like my grandfather and primarily use disposable plates and cutlery.) A dishwasher would help, but the thing that will help most here--and sometimes I lack the discipline, too--is to clean as you go. It's true.
• But essentially, the key to good and easy home cooking is planning. This means not having to go grocery shopping every night. My mother used to write out all the meals for the whole week and then shop accordingly. I don't do that because I never know what's going to sound good, but I do know which ingredients I need to have on hand so that I can work within my culinary whims. I almost always have an assortment of vegetables, which can take you in millions of different directions, a stash of dry pasta and the makings for some kind of sauce, eggs, bread, and some kind of protein in the freezer, like chicken sausage.
  
• Planning, cont.: When I'm on top of my game, I get all kinds of stuff done on a Sunday afternoon: caramelized onions, pesto, roasted peppers or tomatoes; I'll bake something like like zucchini bread or brownies or quiche; I wash and clean all my greens and fruits and vegetables; I hard-boil eggs; I make a vat of vegetable or chicken stock, and maybe I'll make soup; and then some kind of side dish in abundance like pasta salad or hummus. It's totally possible to get this much done, and then you have a foundation for all your lunches and dinners later in the week.
• Cook the food you want to eat. This may sound dumb, unless you've had one too many flavorless pasta dishes that, from the second you started cooking them, didn't interest you.
• A poached egg is an instant upgrade. Put it on top of your salad or your pasta or a piece of toasted bread and you have an entree.
• Good cheeses--especially good parmesean-regganio--improve the sex appeal of your dishes tenfold.
  
• Also, make use of your freezer. This should be obvious.
• And buy your fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market. This should also be obvious. Freedom requires discipline.

Many people don't want this kind of work and wouldn't appreciate the payoff, which is fine. But when good food is a priority, and you have some life-denying day job, and come home from work exhausted, and open to the fridge to find spinach you'll have to clean and a bunch of other stuff that already looks like too much work, like the makings for ratatouille, you're going to order crappy take out or go to a delicious neighborhood restaurant, both of which are making you feel gross and sucking your checking account dry. There is another way.