What better during a cold wintry week than a bowl of chili? Plus, the Super Bowl is coming up, and it's a perfect time to get the chili making skills down!  This is actually my recipe. I don't particularly like hamburger in my chili, I prefer nice chunks of beef instead. I also don't like it so spicy that you can't actually taste the food. I find that this has a "kick", but doesn't bring tears to your eyes. If you are really sensitive to spice, I'd leave out or just put in half of the cayenne and red pepper flakes. You can always add them towards the end.
I would have posted some pics but I took them all from my phone and of course my phone wasn't cooperating with me. Boo.

Chili

1-1 1/2 lbs stew beef

2 TBSP olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped (I prefer sweet onions)

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 TBSP chili powder

1 TBSP oregano

1 ½ tsp. cumin

½ tsp. cayenne

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 ½ tsp. cocoa powder

1 (28 oz.) can of diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (4oz) can of chopped green chilis

2     (15 oz. each) cans of kidney beans. If you like black beans, substitute one of the cans of kidney beans for the black beans.

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. While that’s heating, season the beef with the salt & pepper. Add the beef to the pot, and let it brown, approx. 3 minutes. Make sure that you turn it so that all sides get browned. Add the onions and peppers and cook for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes before lowering the temp to medium. Add the chili powder, oregano, cumin, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and cocoa powder. Let it cook for another minute (it will be sort of thick and kind of pasty). Add the diced tomatoes, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low, cover and let simmer for an hour. The beef should be good and tender by now, if not, let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the chilis, kidney beans, and the tomato paste. Leave uncovered, and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Makes 4-6 servings. It also freezes really well. So if you’re like me and you’re 4 year old won’t touch it, and you don’t want to eat leftovers for more than a day- go ahead and freeze the leftovers.

Helpful tips: Instead of buying the actual stew beef already chopped up at the grocery store. I bought a chuck shoulder roast, and cut it myself. I bought almost 2 ½ lbs. of beef for the same price that I would have paid for a pound of the stew beef. I froze the other half of the meat to use later for a beef stew. If you need a big batch of chili go ahead and use it all, just double all the other ingredients as well.

 If you buy the roast, you’ll most likely have to trim a little bit of fat from it. Do not throw this away! Use it to make some yummy onion soup- I'll post a recipe for that next. If you’re not ready to make the soup, freeze the scraps for later.