New Brunswick Cheap Dinners: Stir-Fry at $7.49

Key Facts

• Chicken Stir-Fry is $29.95 total for 4 servings (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Chicken Stir-Fry is $7.49 per serving in NB (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Broccoli is $3.99 at Independent (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Baby-cut carrots are $3.49 at IGA (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Margarine is $5.49 at IGA (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Garlic Powder is $8.99 at Independent (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

Chicken Stir-Fry is the lowest complete recipe benchmark in this New Brunswick costing set at $7.49 per serving. The full ingredient basket totals $29.95 for four servings, using real May 2026 prices from Independent and IGA. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

If you are trying to plan budget meals in New Brunswick, the most useful number is not only the total grocery bill but the cost per plate. A $29.95 recipe may look moderate at checkout, but divided across four servings it becomes a $7.49 dinner, which gives you a clear comparison point against takeout, prepared meals, and higher-cost weeknight recipes. In this article, you will see the ingredient-level pricing behind the Chicken Stir-Fry, plus two lower-cost vegetable-forward recipe variations built from the same verified New Brunswick grocery prices.

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. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans.

Recipe 1: Chicken Stir-Fry — $7.49 per serving

Chicken Stir-Fry costs $29.95 total and $7.49 per serving for four servings in New Brunswick. The priced ingredient basket includes broccoli at $3.99 from Independent, Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots at $3.49 from IGA, margarine at $5.49 from IGA, garlic powder at $8.99 from Independent, and organic light brown sugar at $7.99 from Independent. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This is the strongest recipe benchmark in the data because it is a full four-serving dinner with a clear total cost and cost-per-serving calculation. You can use it as a reference point when comparing your own weeknight meals: if your planned dinner exceeds $7.49 per serving, this New Brunswick stir-fry basket is a useful lower-cost alternative. The pricing also shows why recipe costing matters. Smaller ingredients such as garlic powder and brown sugar can raise the first-shop cost because you are buying full packages, even though you may use them across multiple meals later.

The biggest cost drivers in this basket are pantry-style flavour ingredients. Garlic Powder is $8.99 at Independent, while Organic Light Brown Sugar is $7.99 at Independent. Together, those two items account for $16.98 of the $29.95 basket, which is more than half of the full recipe purchase cost. If you already have either ingredient in your pantry, your immediate out-of-pocket cost for this meal would be lower, but the verified full-basket cost remains $29.95 based on the May 2026 prices supplied.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Independent supplies three of the five priced items in the Chicken Stir-Fry basket: broccoli at $3.99, garlic powder at $8.99, and organic light brown sugar at $7.99. IGA supplies two items: Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots 454 g at $3.49 and margarine at $5.49. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

For this recipe, your lowest verified route is a split basket between Independent and IGA rather than assuming one banner will be cheapest for every ingredient. You buy the produce-and-pantry items priced at Independent where the data shows them, and you buy the carrots and margarine at IGA. That split-shop approach is especially useful in New Brunswick communities where you may compare banners such as Sobeys, Walmart, No Frills, Atlantic Superstore, and Your Independent Grocer before deciding where your dinner basket belongs.

If you want the simplest version, use the $7.49-per-serving figure as your benchmark and buy the ingredients where you already shop. If you want the most price-disciplined version, follow the item-level store list and avoid substituting without checking the current price. For recipe costing, the important habit is to compare the exact product and package size, because a lower shelf price on a smaller package may not produce a lower usable recipe cost.

Recipe 2: Broccoli-Carrot Skillet — $3.24 per serving

A Broccoli-Carrot Skillet built from the verified New Brunswick prices costs $12.97 total, or $3.24 per serving for four servings. The priced basket uses broccoli at $3.99 from Independent, Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots 454 g at $3.49 from IGA, and margarine at $5.49 from IGA. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This is the cheapest recipe variation in the article because it focuses on the lower-priced produce and cooking-fat components of the available basket. You should treat it as a practical vegetable-forward dinner base, especially if you already have a pantry starch such as rice, noodles, potatoes, or bread at home. The cost shown here is the verified grocery cost for the priced components only, and it remains useful because it shows how much of a meal you can build from three current New Brunswick prices.

At $3.24 per serving, this skillet is less than half the per-serving cost of the full Chicken Stir-Fry benchmark. The difference comes from excluding the two highest-priced pantry flavour items in the supplied basket: garlic powder at $8.99 and organic light brown sugar at $7.99. If you already own seasonings, this is the kind of recipe structure that can keep your weeknight grocery spend low while still using fresh vegetables.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

IGA is the key store for this lower-cost skillet because it carries two of the three priced ingredients: baby-cut carrots at $3.49 and margarine at $5.49. Independent is still part of the lowest verified basket because the broccoli price in the data is $3.99 at Independent. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

For you, the practical shopping decision is whether the split trip is worth it. If you are already near both banners, buying the carrots and margarine at IGA and the broccoli at Independent follows the verified pricing exactly. If you are shopping with limited time, you can use the itemized table as a benchmark and compare your own local shelf prices before deciding whether one-stop convenience is worth a possible price difference.

This recipe also demonstrates how you can use price tracking to scale meals. If you are cooking for two, you can prepare the same basket and keep leftovers for lunch. If you are cooking for four, the $12.97 total gives you a straightforward dinner base at $3.24 per serving before any pantry additions you already own.

Recipe 3: Garlic Brown Sugar Carrots and Broccoli — $6.49 per serving

Garlic Brown Sugar Carrots and Broccoli costs $25.96 total, or $6.49 per serving for four servings, using carrots at $3.49 from IGA, margarine at $5.49 from IGA, garlic powder at $8.99 from Independent, and organic light brown sugar at $7.99 from Independent. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This recipe variation sits between the cheapest skillet and the full Chicken Stir-Fry. It keeps the higher-cost flavour profile of garlic powder and brown sugar while removing the $3.99 broccoli only if you want a carrot-heavy version; when broccoli is included, the full Chicken Stir-Fry-style vegetable basket reaches $29.95 with all five priced ingredients. The $25.96 version gives you a way to understand the cost of a more heavily seasoned vegetable dinner base using the available New Brunswick data.

The important lesson for your grocery budget is that flavour ingredients can carry a high first-purchase cost. Garlic powder at $8.99 and organic light brown sugar at $7.99 are more expensive than the produce items in this set. However, pantry items usually last beyond one dinner, so your first receipt may look higher than the cost of repeating the same flavour profile later. For strict recipe costing, the first-shop basket still matters because it tells you what you will actually pay at checkout if those items are not already in your kitchen.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

The verified lowest basket for this recipe is split evenly by item count: IGA for carrots and margarine, Independent for garlic powder and organic light brown sugar. IGA offers Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots 454 g at $3.49 and margarine at $5.49, while Independent lists garlic powder at $8.99 and organic light brown sugar at $7.99. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

For your shopping list, that means IGA is the produce-and-fat stop, while Independent is the seasoning-and-sweetener stop. If you are building a pantry for multiple cheap dinner recipes, you may accept the higher first-shop cost of garlic powder and brown sugar because those products can support future stir-fries, glazes, and vegetable skillets. If you are only trying to minimize tonight’s bill, Recipe 2 is the better fit at $3.24 per serving.

New Brunswick Basket Index: Ingredient Prices by Store

The New Brunswick basket index shows that the lowest verified recipe component is Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots at $3.49 from IGA, while the highest verified component is Garlic Powder at $8.99 from Independent. These five priced items form the $29.95 Chicken Stir-Fry basket used throughout this article. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This basket index is useful because it separates the meal cost into individual buying decisions. You can see immediately that the fresh produce items are not the main reason the basket reaches $29.95. Broccoli at $3.99 and carrots at $3.49 together cost $7.48, while garlic powder and organic light brown sugar together cost $16.98. That difference matters when you are deciding whether to buy a full pantry item now or adjust the recipe around what you already have.

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

For you, the clearest budgeting move is to identify whether the highest-share items are already in your cupboard. If you have garlic powder, you avoid the $8.99 first-purchase cost on this basket. If you have brown sugar, you avoid another $7.99. That does not change the verified May 2026 basket price, but it does help you estimate your actual checkout cost before you leave home.

Top Priced Items for Budget Meal Planning in New Brunswick

Among the verified New Brunswick recipe items, the lowest-priced product is Compliments Organic Baby-Cut Carrots at $3.49 from IGA, and the highest-priced product is Garlic Powder at $8.99 from Independent. No separate regular-price discount data is included in this recipe set, so the observed May 2026 price is the regular benchmark and the savings rate is shown as 0.0%. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This table is not a flyer-sale ranking; it is a price-planning table for cheap dinner recipes under $8 per serving. You can use it to decide which items to prioritize, which ones to check in your pantry first, and which store to visit for the verified price. When you are building budget meals in New Brunswick, this kind of ingredient-level view is often more useful than a broad claim that one banner is always cheapest.

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

Your best use of this table is to plan around the cheapest fresh items first. Carrots at $3.49 and broccoli at $3.99 create a $7.48 vegetable base before cooking fat or seasonings. From there, you can decide whether to add margarine at $5.49, garlic powder at $8.99, or organic light brown sugar at $7.99 based on what your recipe needs and what you already own.

Price Comparison Table: Three Budget Dinner Recipes Side by Side

The cheapest recipe in this New Brunswick comparison is the Broccoli-Carrot Skillet at $3.24 per serving, while the full Chicken Stir-Fry costs $7.49 per serving. The Garlic Brown Sugar Carrots and Broccoli recipe falls between them at $6.49 per serving. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This side-by-side view helps you choose the right dinner based on your goal. If you want the lowest possible priced basket from the available items, Recipe 2 is the best fit. If you want the most complete benchmark recipe, Recipe 1 is the clearest choice because it has the full supplied Chicken Stir-Fry total of $29.95. If you want a more flavour-forward vegetable dish and are willing to carry the first-shop cost of pantry ingredients, Recipe 3 gives you that middle option.

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

For your weekly meal plan, the best strategy is to use the $3.24 recipe when you need the lowest-cost dinner base, the $6.49 recipe when you want a seasoned vegetable dish, and the $7.49 Chicken Stir-Fry when you want the full priced recipe benchmark. All three options stay under $8 per serving, which makes them practical candidates for searches such as “cheap dinner recipes under $8,” “budget meals New Brunswick,” and “cheapest recipes.”

How to Use These Prices for a Smarter New Brunswick Grocery Trip

You can make the most of these New Brunswick prices by building your list around exact store-item matches: carrots and margarine at IGA, and broccoli, garlic powder, and organic light brown sugar at Independent. The full Chicken Stir-Fry basket is $29.95, while the lower-cost Broccoli-Carrot Skillet basket is $12.97. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

Before you shop, decide whether you are optimizing for the lowest receipt, the fewest stops, or the most complete dinner. If your priority is lowest cost, you focus on Recipe 2 at $3.24 per serving. If your priority is a fuller recipe with more flavour components, you choose the $7.49-per-serving Chicken Stir-Fry. If your priority is pantry building, you may accept the higher first-purchase cost of garlic powder and brown sugar because those items can help you season future meals.

You should also check your kitchen before you leave. The two highest-priced items in the full basket are garlic powder at $8.99 and organic light brown sugar at $7.99, both from Independent. If either is already in your cupboard, your immediate trip can focus on the fresh vegetables and margarine. That is the practical value of recipe costing: it turns a general meal idea into a specific shopping decision with store names and dollar amounts attached.

For more price-aware planning, you can compare current deals at https://eezly.com/deals, browse recipe ideas at https://eezly.com/recipes, and use meal planning tools at https://eezly.com/meal-plans. If you are comparing banners before you shop, the broader store directory at https://eezly.com/stores can help you move from a recipe list to a store-specific plan.