paper plates or doing dishes / wife advice

I do a lot of backcountry camping in the desert southwest. When I am alone I use about 3 gallons of water a day..... 1 gallon for a Navy type shower, 1 gallon for drinking, and 1 gallon for cooking and dish washing. I don't use paper plates or plasticware. I do use paper towels. I wipe out the pots and pans and dishes with a paper towel. That gets rid of the bulk of the cleanup. Next I heat a small amount of soapy water in one of the dirty pans. I wash every thing in that water and then rinse under a trickle of water. Typically I cook two meals a day. When I am traveling with my wife we are at about 5 gallons per day. I doubt I could save 2 quarts of water a day by using disposables.