New Brunswick Seafood Pasta Dinner: $7.46/Serving

June 1, 2026 · 18 min read · NB

Key Facts

According to eezly's real-time tracking of 196,000 products across 2,700 Canadian grocery stores, Seafood Pasta costs $59.70 for eight servings in New Brunswick, or $7.46 per serving, as of June 2026. The priced basket uses Foodland, IGA and Independent listings, including a $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland, $17.90 Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA, and $5.99 Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Independent. For New Brunswick households searching for cheap dinner recipes under $8 per serving, this pasta basket gives you a concrete, store-level benchmark using current prices rather than generic national estimates.

For source context, 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.

Introduction

Seafood Pasta is the featured budget meal in New Brunswick this month at $7.46 per serving, with a total basket cost of $59.70 for eight servings. That makes it a practical dinner option when you want a filling pasta meal that can cover a family dinner and leave room for planned leftovers. The key cost drivers are the Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland for $20.90 and the Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA for $17.90, while lower-cost supporting items such as Crab Apples at $3.73 and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $5.99 help keep the full basket below $60.

This guide is written for New Brunswick grocery shoppers comparing budget meals New Brunswick families can actually price at local banners. The active grocery banners in the province include Atlantic Superstore, Costco, Foodland, IGA, No Frills, Sobeys, Walmart, Your Independent Grocer, RASS and Wholesale Club, but the priced recipe data here is concentrated at Foodland, IGA and Independent. You should use this costing as a recipe-level benchmark: if you already have milk, sauce or pasta at home, your out-of-pocket cost for the dinner can be lower than the full basket price shown here.

Recipe 1: Seafood Pasta — $7.46 per serving

Seafood Pasta costs $59.70 for eight servings in New Brunswick, or $7.46 per serving, using the priced ingredients in eezly’s June 2026 tracking. The recipe is built around a pasta base, a seafood-style surimi component, a creamy sauce profile and fruit as a side or garnish. Your most expensive single item is the Penne Pasta Meal at $20.90 from Foodland, followed by Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at $17.90 from IGA. Together, those two items account for $38.80 of the $59.70 basket, so they are the prices you should check first when you are trying to keep this dinner under control.

For a household of four, the eight-serving format means you can treat this as dinner plus one additional lunch or a second smaller meal. That matters because cost per serving is often more useful than the shelf price of a single product. A $59.70 grocery basket can look high at checkout, but when it produces eight portions, the meal falls into the “cheap dinner recipes under $8” category. If your pantry already contains pasta sauce, milk or fruit, you can also remove those duplicated items from your trip and reduce your cash spend.

Ingredients with Prices

The ingredient list below uses only the New Brunswick prices provided in the June 2026 tracking data. You should read this table as a practical shopping list rather than a strict culinary formula. The milk items can be used to adjust creaminess, the roasted red pepper Alfredo sauce provides the main flavour base, and the crab apples can be served on the side or used as a tart contrast to the creamy pasta.

IngredientStorePrice
Penne Pasta MealFoodland$20.90
Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi SaladIGA$17.90
Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 LFoodland$7.49
Northumberland 1% Partly Skim Chocolate Milk 1 LIGA$3.69
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta SauceIndependent$5.99
Crab ApplesIGA$3.73
Total recipe basketMixed stores$59.70
Servings8
Cost per serving$7.46

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this Seafood Pasta basket, your cheapest listed buying plan is split across Foodland, IGA and Independent rather than concentrated at one store. Foodland supplies the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal and the $7.49 Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L. IGA supplies the $17.90 Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad, the $3.69 Northumberland 1% Partly Skim Chocolate Milk 1 L, and the $3.73 Crab Apples. Independent supplies the $5.99 Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce.

You should prioritize the split-shop items only if the stores fit your normal route. A multi-store shop can reduce ingredient-level costs, but it can also cost you time and transportation if you make extra trips for one low-priced item. In this basket, the most important store checks are Foodland for the pasta component and IGA for the surimi salad, because those two products represent the largest share of the meal cost. Independent’s $5.99 sauce price is still meaningful, but sauce is a smaller part of the final per-serving number.

Recipe 2: Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne — $4.30 per serving

Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne costs $34.38 for eight servings, or $4.30 per serving, when you build a simpler pasta dinner from the Foodland Penne Pasta Meal, Foodland Silk Whole Next Milk and Independent Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce. This is the cheapest recipe in this guide because it removes the $17.90 surimi salad and the fruit side from the basket. If you want cheap dinner recipes under $5 per serving in New Brunswick, this is the strongest option from the available June 2026 ingredient prices.

The trade-off is that this version is less protein-forward than the full Seafood Pasta recipe. You are paying for a creamy pasta dinner built around sauce, pasta and milk rather than a seafood-style pasta bowl. For a weeknight dinner, that can still be useful: you get a predictable eight-serving pasta base at a lower total cost, and you can add pantry protein if you already have it at home. Because the article uses only verified prices from the provided data, no additional meat, cheese or vegetables are costed into this version.

Ingredients with Prices

IngredientStorePrice
Penne Pasta MealFoodland$20.90
Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 LFoodland$7.49
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta SauceIndependent$5.99
Total recipe basketMixed stores$34.38
Servings8
Cost per serving$4.30

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this stripped-down Alfredo Penne dinner, your shopping route is simpler than the full Seafood Pasta basket. Foodland covers two of the three priced ingredients: the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal and the $7.49 Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L. Independent supplies the $5.99 Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce. That means you can price most of the dinner at Foodland and decide whether the Independent stop is worthwhile for the sauce.

Foodland offers the Penne Pasta Meal at $20.90, while Independent lists the Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at $5.99; because these are different products, you should not treat the difference as a like-for-like savings comparison. Instead, treat the table as a basket map showing which store supplies each component at the tracked price. If you already have a comparable sauce at home, you can use the Foodland items as your only out-of-pocket grocery spend for this recipe and bring the practical checkout cost below the $34.38 full basket.

Recipe 3: Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples — $5.32 per serving

Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples costs $42.53 for eight servings, or $5.32 per serving, using the Foodland Penne Pasta Meal, IGA Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad and IGA Crab Apples. This version sits between the full Seafood Pasta and the simplified Alfredo Penne on cost. You keep the seafood-style surimi component, which is the second-most expensive item in the original basket, but you remove both milk products and the Alfredo sauce. The result is a colder or lighter pasta-salad-style dinner that stays under $6 per serving.

This recipe is useful if you want budget meals in New Brunswick that can work for packed lunches as well as dinner. Pasta salad tends to hold better than sauced hot pasta, and the crab apples give you a low-priced fruit component at $3.73. The $17.90 surimi salad remains a major cost driver, so this is not as cheap as the Alfredo-only version. However, if you value a more substantial seafood-style component, the extra $1.02 per serving compared with the $4.30 Alfredo Penne may be reasonable for your household.

Ingredients with Prices

IngredientStorePrice
Penne Pasta MealFoodland$20.90
Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi SaladIGA$17.90
Crab ApplesIGA$3.73
Total recipe basketMixed stores$42.53
Servings8
Cost per serving$5.32

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

For the Surimi Pasta Salad version, you should focus on two stores: Foodland for the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal and IGA for the $17.90 Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad and $3.73 Crab Apples. This is a cleaner shopping route than the full Seafood Pasta recipe because you do not need the Independent sauce stop. Your basket is also less dependent on dairy pricing, which can be helpful if your household does not need milk for this meal.

IGA lists Crab Apples at $3.73 and Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at $17.90, while Foodland lists the Penne Pasta Meal at $20.90. These are complementary items rather than substitutes, so your savings strategy is not about switching between stores for the same product. It is about buying each component where the tracked price is available and avoiding add-ons that push the dinner above the $5 to $6 per-serving range.

Price Comparison Table

Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne is the cheapest recipe in this New Brunswick comparison at $4.30 per serving, while the full Seafood Pasta basket is the most expensive at $7.46 per serving. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive recipes is $3.16 per serving, based on the itemized June 2026 prices. If you are feeding eight people or planning eight portions, that per-serving gap equals $25.32 across the full recipe. Your best choice depends on whether you want the lowest possible pasta dinner, the seafood-style component, or the complete creamy seafood basket.

RecipeTotal CostServingsCost/ServingCheapest Store
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne$34.388$4.30Foodland and Independent
Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples$42.538$5.32Foodland and IGA
Seafood Pasta$59.708$7.46Foodland, IGA and Independent

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

The table shows why recipe costing is more useful than looking at a single grocery item in isolation. The Penne Pasta Meal at $20.90 appears in all three dinners, but the final cost per serving changes sharply depending on whether you add sauce, milk, surimi salad or fruit. If your goal is the cheapest recipe, you choose the $4.30 Alfredo Penne. If your goal is a more complete seafood-style meal, you choose the $7.46 Seafood Pasta and accept the higher basket cost.

New Brunswick Basket Index: Ingredient Prices by Store

The New Brunswick basket index shows that the six priced ingredients range from $3.69 for Northumberland 1% Partly Skim Chocolate Milk 1 L at IGA to $20.90 for Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland. This is not a same-product price match across multiple stores; it is a recipe basket index showing where each tracked ingredient is cheapest in the available data. You should use it to identify which items drive your dinner cost and which items are lower-cost add-ons.

Basket ItemStorePriceRole in Recipe
Penne Pasta MealFoodland$20.90Main pasta base
Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi SaladIGA$17.90Seafood-style protein component
Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 LFoodland$7.49Creaminess and sauce adjustment
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta SauceIndependent$5.99Main sauce
Crab ApplesIGA$3.73Fruit side or tart garnish
Northumberland 1% Partly Skim Chocolate Milk 1 LIGA$3.69Optional dairy component

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

Your best use of this basket index is to separate essential ingredients from optional ones. For the full Seafood Pasta, all six items are included in the $59.70 cost. For the $4.30-per-serving Alfredo Penne, you only need the pasta, Silk milk and Alfredo sauce. For the $5.32-per-serving Surimi Pasta Salad, you only need the pasta, surimi salad and crab apples. That is how you turn one full grocery basket into three different budget meals.

Top Priced Items and Basket Impact

The highest-impact item in this New Brunswick recipe basket is the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland, followed by the $17.90 Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA. Together, those two items account for $38.80 of the full $59.70 Seafood Pasta recipe. Because the source data does not provide regular prices, the table below reports verified current prices and basket impact instead of unsupported sale savings. This keeps the comparison accurate while still showing you which items matter most for your grocery budget.

ProductCurrent PriceRegular PriceSavings %StoreBasket Impact
Penne Pasta Meal$20.90Not provided in source dataNot providedFoodlandHighest-cost item
Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad$17.90Not provided in source dataNot providedIGASecond-highest cost item
Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L$7.49Not provided in source dataNot providedFoodlandMid-cost dairy item
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce$5.99Not provided in source dataNot providedIndependentSauce cost driver
Crab Apples$3.73Not provided in source dataNot providedIGALow-cost fruit item
Northumberland 1% Partly Skim Chocolate Milk 1 L$3.69Not provided in source dataNot providedIGALowest-priced item

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

This table gives you the practical equivalent of a deal screen for the recipe: it tells you where to focus your attention before checkout. If the Penne Pasta Meal or surimi salad price changes, the total meal cost changes noticeably. If the crab apples or chocolate milk price moves slightly, the impact on an eight-serving dinner is much smaller. For a budget-conscious New Brunswick household, that means your first comparison should be the pasta base and the surimi component, not the smallest side item.

How to Shop These Budget Meals in New Brunswick

The most efficient way to shop these budget meals is to choose the recipe before you choose the route. If you want the lowest cost, buy the $34.38 Alfredo Penne basket and keep the dinner at $4.30 per serving. If you want a seafood-style meal without the full creamy sauce basket, buy the $42.53 Surimi Pasta Salad ingredients and keep the cost at $5.32 per serving. If you want the full recipe, shop the $59.70 Seafood Pasta basket and plan for $7.46 per serving.

You should also compare the value of your time with the value of a second store visit. The full Seafood Pasta basket uses Foodland, IGA and Independent prices, which is useful if those stores are already part of your regular errands. If you need to drive across town to save on one sauce item, the practical savings may not be worth the time. A better approach is to build your weekly meal plan around the store you are visiting anyway, then use price tracking to decide which add-ons belong in your cart.

New Brunswick has 84 stores in the province-level store count provided for this data set, and active banners include Atlantic Superstore, Costco, Foodland, IGA, No Frills, Sobeys, Walmart, Your Independent Grocer, RASS and Wholesale Club. This article’s recipe prices come from Foodland, IGA and Independent, so those are the relevant store names for this meal. When you are comparing cheap dinner recipes, your strongest results usually come from matching the recipe to the store-level price rather than relying on a broad assumption about which banner is always cheapest.

What These Recipe Costs Mean for Your Grocery Budget

A dinner that costs $4.30 to $7.46 per serving gives you a practical range for pasta-based meals in New Brunswick as of June 2026. The $4.30 Alfredo Penne is the strongest fit when your priority is a lower checkout total. The $5.32 Surimi Pasta Salad is a middle option when you want a seafood-style component without the full dairy-and-sauce basket. The $7.46 Seafood Pasta is the most complete version, but it is also the most expensive.

You should think of these recipes as modular rather than fixed. The same priced ingredients can support a hot creamy pasta dinner, a lighter pasta salad, or a full seafood-style pasta meal. That flexibility is valuable when grocery prices move, because you can keep the base item and adjust the supporting ingredients. If your household already has sauce or milk, the recipe costing becomes even more favourable because you are not buying every item from scratch.

This is where AI-powered grocery price comparison can help your planning. Instead of manually checking every banner, you can compare ingredient prices and build dinners around the best available basket. eezly’s real-time price tracking covers 27 Canadian grocery banners and 2,700 stores nationally, which gives you a broader pricing context when you are deciding whether a recipe belongs in your weekly meal plan. For recipe inspiration and cost planning, you can also review related eezly resources such as https://eezly.com/recipes, https://eezly.com/meal-plans and https://eezly.com/deals.

FAQ

Q: What is the cheapest dinner recipe in New Brunswick from this price data?
A: The cheapest dinner recipe in this New Brunswick comparison is Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne at $34.38 for eight servings, or $4.30 per serving. It uses Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland for $20.90, Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L at Foodland for $7.49, and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Independent for $5.99. This is the best option if you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $5 per serving.

Q: How much does Seafood Pasta cost per serving in New Brunswick?
A: Seafood Pasta costs $59.70 for eight servings, or $7.46 per serving, based on eezly real-time price tracking for June 2026. The basket includes Foodland, IGA and Independent items, with the biggest costs coming from the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland and the $17.90 Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA.

Q: What is the cheapest grocery store in New Brunswick for this recipe basket?
A: For this specific recipe basket, no single store supplies every lowest listed ingredient. Foodland is the source for the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal and $7.49 Silk Whole Next Milk, IGA is the source for the $17.90 surimi salad, $3.69 Northumberland milk and $3.73 crab apples, and Independent is the source for the $5.99 Alfredo sauce. Your cheapest route depends on which version of the recipe you choose.

Q: Can I make a budget seafood-style dinner under $6 per serving in New Brunswick?
A: Yes. The Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples costs $42.53 for eight servings, or $5.32 per serving. It uses Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland for $20.90, Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA for $17.90, and Crab Apples at IGA for $3.73. This keeps the seafood-style component while avoiding the higher cost of the full creamy Seafood Pasta basket.

Q: How can AI help save on groceries in Canada?
A: AI can help you save by comparing ingredient prices across stores before you build your meal plan. In this New Brunswick example, eezly’s real-time tracking shows that the full Seafood Pasta basket costs $59.70, while a simpler Alfredo Penne version using fewer tracked ingredients costs $34.38. That kind of comparison helps you choose the recipe structure before you shop.

Q: Are these prices current for June 2026?
A: Yes. The prices in this article are presented as of June 2026 from eezly’s real-time price tracking. The cited New Brunswick ingredient prices include $20.90 for Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland, $17.90 for Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA, $5.99 for Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Independent, and $3.73 for Crab Apples at IGA.

Comparison

RecipeTotal CostServingsCost/ServingCheapest Store
Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne$34.388$4.30Foodland and Independent
Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples$42.538$5.32Foodland and IGA
Seafood Pasta$59.708$7.46Foodland, IGA and Independent

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best cheap dinner recipes under $8 in New Brunswick?

Based on June 2026 eezly price tracking, all three recipes in this guide are under $8 per serving. Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne is $4.30 per serving, Surimi Pasta Salad with Crab Apples is $5.32 per serving, and Seafood Pasta is $7.46 per serving. The cheapest option is the Alfredo Penne basket at $34.38 for eight servings.

What is the cheapest grocery store in Fredericton or New Brunswick for these pasta recipes?

For this specific New Brunswick pasta basket, the lowest listed prices are split across Foodland, IGA and Independent. Foodland has the $20.90 Penne Pasta Meal and $7.49 Silk Whole Next Milk, IGA has the $17.90 surimi salad, $3.69 Northumberland milk and $3.73 crab apples, and Independent has the $5.99 Alfredo sauce. The cheapest store depends on which recipe version you make.

How much does the full Seafood Pasta recipe cost in New Brunswick?

The full Seafood Pasta recipe costs $59.70 for eight servings, or $7.46 per serving, as of June 2026. The basket includes Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland, Value Size FF Shrimp Surimi Salad at IGA, Silk Whole Next Milk at Foodland, Northumberland milk at IGA, Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Independent and Crab Apples at IGA.

Which recipe has the lowest total basket cost?

Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Penne has the lowest total basket cost at $34.38 for eight servings. It uses three priced items: Penne Pasta Meal at Foodland for $20.90, Silk Whole Next Milk 1.74 L at Foodland for $7.49, and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta Sauce at Independent for $5.99.

How can AI help save on groceries?

AI helps by comparing grocery prices across banners and turning those prices into meal-level decisions. In this guide, eezly’s real-time tracking makes it clear that removing the surimi salad and fruit from the full $59.70 Seafood Pasta basket creates a cheaper $34.38 Alfredo Penne dinner. That lets you plan around cost per serving before you shop.

Are these budget meals suitable for meal planning?

Yes. Each recipe is costed for eight servings, which makes the meals useful for family dinners, leftovers or planned lunches. The cost per serving ranges from $4.30 for Alfredo Penne to $7.46 for Seafood Pasta, giving you several New Brunswick budget meal options depending on how much variety and protein you want.

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