Beef and Black Bean Chili

Recipe #48: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/beef_and_black_bean_chili.php

As recipes go, this one is pretty straight forward and easy if you don't mind all the chopping, draining, and other prep steps. I don't have a photo of my results just yet because my camera is suddenly acting strange. I'll post it later if I get a chance.

There were a few substitutions/modifications for my version of this recipe. I found only 1/2 lb of ground beef in the freezer so I thawed the additional 1/2 lb of ground pork that I found in there too. And by the way, 1 lb of meat as called for in this recipe is a LOT of meat at the end.... I couldn't find lime juice at the store so I skipped it altogether. I used canned corn and added an extra handful. I passed on the red pepper on principle since I don't like peppers. I only had dried coriander so I used 3 tbsp of it and I keep forgetting to serve myself the cheddar cheese on my chili.

I can tell I've been away from cooking for a while: my eyes keep streaming when I'm chopping onions. My immunity seems to have worn off while I was in New Zealand. I had to guesstimate how many baby carrots to chop to make up the 1 carrot I was supposed to be dicing, but I just used as many to make a slightly bigger pile than the celery. I'm learning not to be perfect.

Final result in my version is good! I had it for lunch today. It's got some pretty good flavour which is a stretch from my usual bland choices. Your guts will thank you for the fibre in the beans too :)