Manitoba Budget Meals: $5.21 Pasta Dinners in May

Key Facts

• Chicken and Broccoli Pasta is $47.27 for 6 servings. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Its cost per serving is $7.88. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g is $3.19 at Safeway. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Sliced Cooked Chicken Breast Roast is $3.50 at No Frills. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• White Mushrooms are $0.33 at No Frills. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

The cheapest dinner recipe in this Manitoba cost comparison is Broccoli Mushroom Rotini at $5.21 per serving, followed by Chicken Water Chestnut Pasta Skillet at $5.21 and Chicken and Broccoli Pasta at $7.88. These are cheap dinner recipes under $8 per serving, built from real May 2026 prices at Safeway and No Frills in Manitoba. If you are planning budget meals in Manitoba, the main takeaway is straightforward: pasta-based dinners remain cost-effective when you combine lower-priced No Frills ingredients such as $0.33 white mushrooms, $3.50 sliced cooked chicken breast roast, and $4.99 broccoli with Safeway’s $3.19 Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g.

All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly is Canada's AI-powered grocery price intelligence platform, tracking 196,000+ products across 2,700 stores and 27 banners, processing 40 million price points per week. All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans. For this Manitoba recipe costing, you should treat the prices as a practical grocery-planning snapshot for May 2026 across Safeway and No Frills, two of the banners represented in the province’s active grocery market.

Recipe 1: Broccoli Mushroom Rotini — $5.21 per serving

Broccoli Mushroom Rotini costs $31.28 for six servings, or $5.21 per serving, using Manitoba ingredient prices from Safeway and No Frills. The lowest-priced ingredient in this recipe is White Mushrooms at $0.33 at No Frills, while the highest-cost ingredient is Extra Virgin Olive Oil at $14.99 at No Frills. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This recipe is the best fit if you want one of the cheapest recipes in the comparison without relying on meat as the main cost driver. You are still buying a filling pasta base, a green vegetable, mushrooms, garlic, seasoning, and oil, but you avoid the $11.00 shallot line that raises the cost of the more aromatic pasta option below. For your weekly grocery plan, this is the recipe to choose when you want a simple pasta dinner that keeps the per-serving price close to $5.

Because the ingredient list uses both Safeway and No Frills, your best strategy is to split the shop when convenient. Safeway has the Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g at $3.19 and garlic at $4.99 in the supplied Manitoba price data, while No Frills has the mushrooms, broccoli, seasoning salt, and olive oil prices used in this costing. You should prioritize the No Frills items if you are trying to keep the total low, because four of the six priced ingredients in this recipe are listed there.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

No Frills is the strongest store for this recipe because it supplies four of the six priced ingredients: Seasoning Salt at $2.79, White Mushrooms at $0.33, Broccoli at $4.99, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil at $14.99. Safeway supplies the pasta at $3.19 and garlic at $4.99 in the Manitoba pricing data. If you are already shopping at both stores, your most efficient route is to buy the produce and pantry oil at No Frills and reserve Safeway for the Catelli rotini and garlic.

You should also pay attention to how ingredient size affects future meals. The $14.99 Extra Virgin Olive Oil line makes this recipe look more expensive than the single dinner may feel in practice, because oil is typically used across multiple meals. However, this recipe costing uses the live priced item as listed, which keeps the comparison consistent across all three dinners. For a strict receipt-based budget, $31.28 is the relevant basket cost; for a pantry-use budget, your effective cost per dinner may be lower once the oil is used again.

Recipe 2: Chicken Water Chestnut Pasta Skillet — $5.21 per serving

Chicken Water Chestnut Pasta Skillet also costs $31.28 for six servings, or $5.21 per serving, using Manitoba prices from Safeway and No Frills. The recipe includes Sliced Cooked Chicken Breast Roast at $3.50 at No Frills and Whole Water Chestnuts at $1.49 at No Frills, giving you a chicken-based dinner at the same per-serving cost as the vegetarian-style rotini above. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This is the best choice if you want one of the cheapest recipes in the guide but prefer a dinner that includes chicken. The key reason the price stays at $5.21 per serving is that the recipe leaves out the $11.00 Shallots Onions line and the $4.99 broccoli line, while using lower-priced No Frills ingredients such as $1.49 water chestnuts and $0.33 mushrooms. You still get pasta, chicken, seasoning, garlic, mushrooms, and oil, which makes the meal more complete than a plain pasta dish.

For your grocery planning, this recipe is useful because it shows that adding chicken does not automatically push a Manitoba pasta dinner above $6 per serving. The $3.50 Sliced Cooked Chicken Breast Roast line is lower than several pantry and produce items in the comparison, including $4.99 garlic, $11.00 shallots, and $14.99 olive oil. If your goal is to build budget meals in Manitoba around protein, you should compare the full basket rather than assuming meat is always the largest cost.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

No Frills is the most important stop for Chicken Water Chestnut Pasta Skillet because five of the seven priced ingredients are listed there. You would buy the $3.50 Sliced Cooked Chicken Breast Roast, $2.79 Seasoning Salt, $1.49 Whole Water Chestnuts, $0.33 White Mushrooms, and $14.99 Extra Virgin Olive Oil at No Frills. Safeway contributes the $3.19 Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g and $4.99 garlic in the supplied Manitoba data.

If you are trying to reduce shopping time, you can treat this as a No Frills-led recipe and decide whether a separate Safeway stop is worth it for pasta and garlic. If you already have pasta or garlic in your pantry, the live basket cost will overstate what you need to pay at checkout for this particular dinner. If you are starting from an empty pantry, however, the $31.28 total is the cleanest comparison point because it prices every listed ingredient consistently.

Recipe 3: Chicken and Broccoli Pasta — $7.88 per serving

Chicken and Broccoli Pasta costs $47.27 for six servings, or $7.88 per serving, making it the highest-cost dinner in this Manitoba recipe comparison. The recipe uses nine priced ingredients, including $3.19 Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g at Safeway, $3.50 Sliced Cooked Chicken Breast Roast at No Frills, $4.99 Broccoli at No Frills, and $11.00 Shallots Onions at Safeway. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This recipe is still a cheap dinner recipe under $8 per serving, but it costs $2.67 more per serving than the two $5.21 pasta dinners above. The main reason is that it includes the full set of priced ingredients: pasta, chicken, seasoning, water chestnuts, garlic, shallots, mushrooms, broccoli, and olive oil. If you want a more complete pasta dinner with chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, aromatics, and crunch from water chestnuts, this is the most rounded option; if your priority is the lowest price, you should choose one of the $5.21 recipes instead.

The store split matters more here because the basket is larger. Safeway appears for the pasta at $3.19, garlic at $4.99, and shallots at $11.00, while No Frills appears for chicken at $3.50, seasoning salt at $2.79, water chestnuts at $1.49, mushrooms at $0.33, broccoli at $4.99, and olive oil at $14.99. You should review your pantry before buying this recipe, because skipping an ingredient you already own can materially change your checkout total.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

No Frills carries six of the nine priced ingredients in the Chicken and Broccoli Pasta basket, making it the most important store for this recipe. The No Frills items include the $3.50 chicken, $2.79 seasoning salt, $1.49 water chestnuts, $0.33 mushrooms, $4.99 broccoli, and $14.99 olive oil. Safeway’s role is concentrated in the pasta and aromatics, with $3.19 rotini, $4.99 garlic, and $11.00 shallots.

If you want to keep the flavour profile but lower the bill, the most obvious cost lever is the $11.00 Shallots Onions line. Removing that one ingredient would reduce the priced basket from $47.27 to $36.27, although the official costing for this recipe remains $47.27 because the full listed recipe includes it. You can use that kind of substitution thinking when you compare cheapest recipes: identify the ingredients that add the most to the receipt, then decide whether they are essential for your dinner.

Manitoba Basket Index: Staple Prices for These Recipes

The Manitoba basket index shows that No Frills supplies most of the lowest-priced ingredients used in these pasta dinners, while Safeway supplies the listed rotini, garlic, and shallots. Across the priced ingredients, White Mushrooms at $0.33 at No Frills are the lowest-cost item, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil at $14.99 at No Frills is the highest-cost item. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This basket index is not a generic grocery list; it is the set of staple ingredients used to build the three recipes in this article. You can use it as a practical shopping map before you decide which dinner to make. If your pantry already includes olive oil, seasoning salt, or garlic, your actual checkout cost may be lower than the full basket shown here, but the itemized prices remain useful for comparing Safeway and No Frills in Manitoba.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Top Low-Price Ingredients in the Manitoba Recipe Basket

The strongest low-price ingredients in this Manitoba recipe basket are White Mushrooms at $0.33, Whole Water Chestnuts at $1.49, Seasoning Salt at $2.79, and Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g at $3.19. These prices help explain why two dinners in the comparison can be costed at $5.21 per serving even when one includes chicken. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

Because the supplied May 2026 data contains live prices rather than separate regular-price benchmarks, the table below focuses on the lowest live prices available in the recipe basket. That is the more useful view when you are planning dinner today: you need to know which items are doing the most work to keep your receipt down. For your Manitoba grocery plan, the best value pattern is to build around low-priced mushrooms, water chestnuts, seasoning, pasta, and chicken, then decide whether higher-priced items such as shallots and olive oil are necessary for the meal you want.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Price Comparison Table: Three Manitoba Pasta Dinners

Broccoli Mushroom Rotini and Chicken Water Chestnut Pasta Skillet tie as the cheapest recipes at $5.21 per serving, while Chicken and Broccoli Pasta costs $7.88 per serving. The difference between the $31.28 recipes and the $47.27 recipe is $15.99 per six-serving dinner, driven mainly by the larger ingredient list in Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This side-by-side view is the fastest way for you to choose a dinner based on budget. If your priority is the lowest cost per serving, choose either of the $5.21 recipes. If you want the fuller ingredient mix with chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts, garlic, shallots, and oil, the $7.88 Chicken and Broccoli Pasta gives you the broadest basket while still staying under $8 per serving.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

How to Shop These Budget Meals in Manitoba

Your best shopping strategy for these budget meals in Manitoba is to start with No Frills for the lower-priced basket items, then add Safeway items where the recipe requires them. No Frills appears for the $0.33 mushrooms, $1.49 water chestnuts, $2.79 seasoning salt, $3.50 cooked chicken, $4.99 broccoli, and $14.99 olive oil, while Safeway appears for $3.19 Catelli rotini, $4.99 garlic, and $11.00 shallots. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

If you are cooking only one dinner, you should choose the recipe before you shop, not after. The two $5.21 recipes use fewer high-cost ingredients and avoid the $11.00 shallot line, which keeps the basket at $31.28. The Chicken and Broccoli Pasta basket costs $47.27 because it includes every priced ingredient in the list, so it is a better choice when you want a fuller dinner and are comfortable with the higher per-serving cost.

You can also use these recipes as templates rather than rigid shopping lists. If you already have oil at home, the $14.99 olive oil line does not need to be repurchased for your dinner. If you have garlic or seasoning salt in the pantry, you can reduce the checkout cost further while still following the same basic recipe structure. For current grocery comparisons and store-level deal checks, you can review live offers at https://eezly.com/deals, browse recipe ideas at https://eezly.com/recipes, or compare meal-planning options at https://eezly.com/meal-plans.

Why Pasta Dinners Work for Cheap Dinner Recipes Under $8

Pasta dinners work well for cheap dinner recipes under $8 because the base ingredient in this Manitoba basket, Catelli Dry Pasta Rotini 500 g, is priced at $3.19 at Safeway. When that pasta is combined with low-priced No Frills ingredients such as $0.33 mushrooms, $1.49 water chestnuts, and $3.50 cooked chicken, you can build six-serving dinners at $5.21 per serving. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

The main budgeting lesson is that the total recipe cost depends more on the full basket than on any single headline ingredient. Chicken may sound expensive, but the cooked chicken line in this data is $3.50, while shallots are $11.00 and olive oil is $14.99. If you are trying to identify the cheapest recipes, you should look closely at aromatics, oils, specialty vegetables, and pantry items, because those can move the final per-serving cost as much as protein does.

For Manitoba households, this also means you can plan dinners by ingredient overlap. All three recipes use pasta, seasoning, garlic, mushrooms, and olive oil, so one shopping trip can support multiple pasta meals if you vary the vegetables and protein. That kind of overlap is especially useful when you want budget meals in Manitoba that do not feel repetitive but still use the same core grocery basket.