$13: 7-Eleven

Where: 7-Eleven, 1550 NW Market St., BALLARD.

What does $13 get you? A can of tuna, relish, a mayo packet, a package of Hawaiian rolls, a fruit cup, a bowl of soup, two Slurpies, a dark chocolate Snickers bar and a scratch-off ticket, plus 50 cents to give the guy sitting on the curb outside

Recommend? In a pinch. And if nothing else, go get a Slurpie. They have the best flavor selection of all the other 7-Elevens I've frequented in Seattle.

Official tasting notes: Dates are expensive--even if you're married to the person with whom you're on a date. But the bonus of the married date is you can cut corners and still expect the person to call you the next day and, if you're lucky, even put out that night.

So off to 7-Eleven we went in search of food and entertainment. And food we definitely found. I was expecting to have to get a six-pack, a bag of chips and some candy, but my husband really dug deep for this assignment, finding a bag of rolls, tuna, sweet relish and mayo packets (free mayo!) for the makings of a bag o' tiny tuna sandwiches.

Then I figured we should have a soup course and a gelatinous fruit course. They had the real deal (i.e., fresh fruit--yes, at 7-Eleven), but I figured when in Rome, eat the gelatinous stuff in a cup. Then I found the most amazing thing to come along since the Snickers bar: the dark chocolate Snickers bar. And we figured it wasn't a date without entertainment, so we threw down a buck for a scratch-off ticket.

Sadly, we didn't win anything in the lotto, but we did walk away with a sack full of sustenance and two Slurpies in hand. Plus, we had 50 cents left to toss to the fellow sitting outside with the sign that says, "A couple fries short of a happy meal."

Everything was delightfully normal--the same sort of meal you'd throw together after scrounging around your own cabinets--except, of course, for the Slurpies, which were a little piece of frozen, syrupy heaven. Honestly, though, the gelatinous fruit cup went untouched and ended up providing more entertainment than the scratch-off ticket.