This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Whole Foods stores. Here's what's looking good to me now as we head into Saint Patrick's Day already.

At Sprouts through March 18th, value packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.99 a pound, boneless sirloin tip roasts or steak are $3.99 a pound (something to chop up as your own stew beef), Sprouts' own quite good stuffed chicken breasts are $2.99 a pound ($1 less than their usual sale price these days), Rosie organic boneless skinless chicken breasts are $7.99 a pound ($2.79 for Rosie's drumsticks), grass-fed boneless ribeye or New York steaks are $10.99 a pound, fresh farmed Atlantic salmon fillets are $7.99 a pound, and farmed tilapia is $6.99 a pound.

In organic produce at Sprouts, celery or green bell peppers are just 98 cents each (and those bell peppers are in the so-called dirty dozen, veggies you should never eat in conventional), grape tomatoes are just $1.98 a pint, green curly kale is $1.50 a bunch, baby peeled carrots are $1.50 a bag, red bell peppers are $1.50 each (ditto on the bell pepper comment), one pound clamshells of strawberries or 5.6 ounces of blackberries are $2.98 each, and red delicious apples are 98 cents a pound. In conventional produce, my eye is on asparagus at $1.98 a pound. Elsewhere in the store, bulk coffee is $7.77 a pound, some Amy's burritos are $2 each, the smaller size of Muir Glen organic tomatoes is good at $1.25 a can, and it's time to get Irish, with seven ounce Kerrygold cheeses $4.99 each and Celtic Vintage Irish cheddar with malt whiskey or porter beer $13.99 a pound. Nobody does dairy better than the Irish (or bacon or ham or fish - don't get me started...)

Whole Foods has a new sale through March 31st, but as of this writing, the pdf posted for the Pearl Street store is still the one for the sale that ended yesterday, so I'll do what I can scanning the boxes of sale items instead. Market Made or Wellshire corned beef or corned buffalo (!) brisket are $6.99 a pound (my Saint Patrick's Day corned beef is always that Market Made one, just perfect), teriyaki salmon burgers are $3.99 each, and wild coho salmon fillets (presumably previously frozen) are $13.99 a pound. Organic Bartlett pears are $1.48 a pound, but for conventional asparagus I'd prefer Sprouts' price over Whole Foods' sale of $2.48 a pound. Market Made grilled salmon chef super salads are convenient when there's no time to cook, and they're $1 off at $5.99 each, 11 ounce packages of Applegate Black Forest ham are $5.99 each, and four inch chocolate stout cakes are $8 each (and the Irish really don't put booze into everything, maybe just most things).