meal planning, part two.

I really appreciated all of the ideas that people gave me about meal planning and recipes and things like that:) I have a ton of recipes that I want to try - it's just getting to actually MAKING them where I have a problem.
I don't think I'm going to go to the level of the dry erase board on the fridge yet (although Cheryl - I almost did it too!) but I am going to try to think harder about what we should have for dinner, and how I can plan ahead to bring lunch with me to school, the weekend before. (bringing lunch is important too, especially for me - gluten free options are never cheap, and if I don't feel like spending $9 on lunch I end up eating string cheese, apple+peanut butter, and chips. And I promise I didn't just do exactly that on Tuesday.)

I think just thinking about trying to meal plan/cook better at home helped, though, because in the past week or so:

• I made baked potato soup. From scratch. I made up the recipe after reading a few, and it.was.fantastic. That could be because my favorite foods, in no particular order, are potatoes, soup, and cheese, and all three were included!
• Chris and I made homemade pizza TWICE. Last Friday, we used premade crust, and then last Saturday I made the dough from scratch (well, in my bread machine). The premade one was better. But they were both good:)
• I've been on an extreme kick of roasting veggies in the oven - probably because it's easy!! Brocolli, potatoes, green peppers, and sweet potatoes so far.
• I made spaghetti squash! One of those foods I loved when my parents made it, but never made myself. 
• I went to Russo's and stocked up on veggies and fruit (cheap! delicious!) and plants (a daffodil for our apartment, and a daffodil for my office - well the office where I am usually found - at school). Thinking about making green curry.
• Went to Jen's on Thursday, and she fed me yummy homemade soup (and hot apple cider with cinnamon and rum...)

On the other hand, I still bought lunch at school 2 out of 4 days (well, "lunch" one of the times), ate frozen breaded chicken w/mozzarella cheese twice, ate a lot of chips (my weakness), ordered Thai food on Sunday night for no good reason except it sounded good.... it wasn't perfect by any means, but it's a start.

I also made it to the gym more than usual. Coincidence?
....or could it all be because I'm avoiding doing my stats work for my dissertation??
 Thoughts?