'Good Old Chili Con Carne'

Hello everybody! Today marked my second day of cooking, and I chose to make a dinner of chili con carne. It turned out really well and I was so happy with the results!

~Ingredients: 2 medium onions, 2 cloves of garlic (which I actually forgot to put in :)), 2 medium carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 red bell peppers, olive oil, 1 teaspoon of: chili powder, ground cumin, ground cinnamon, salt and pepper, 1 x 15oz can of gabanzo beans, 1 x 15oz can of red kidney beans, 2 x 14oz can of diced tomatoes, 1 pound of ground beef, 1 small bunch of cilantro, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 cups of basmati rice, natural yogurt, guacamole, and lime

So, I started off by chopping the onions, carrots, celery, and peppers..., and the garlic (if I hadn't have forgotten about it). This was the longest part of the process of the preparation, I realized that I am terrible at chopping. You want to chop them into relatively small pieces. After chopping them throw them into the largest saucepan you have, and add 2 big gollops of olive oil. Then I pulled a bowlful of leaves off of the cilantro and kept the leaves in the fridge until later, and chopped the stalks up and threw them into the saucepan as well. After a good mix, I added the spices (3 total) into the saucepan and gave it a good stir. Make sure to add a bit of salt and pepper in as well, for an extra bit of flavor. I then left it for seven minutes but stirred it every so often. Make sure to leave it on a medium-high heat of gas. After 7 minutes I added the 2 types of beans and the tomatoes. Make sure to fully drain the beans before you add them into chili. I just left them draining during the time I was chopping. Also add a can of tap water. Then add the meat and you don't want any large chunks of meat, so break it down with your wooden spoon. Add the balsamic vinegar and add some more salt and pepper. Then leave it on a simmer for an hour, but definitely stir it every so often. Now with the rice, I was lucky and borrowed a rice cooker from my neighbors. I just started cooking the rice, when the chili had been cooking for half an hour. After the rice was cooking for 30 minutes it was ready to be served!
I then served the chili on top of the rice and placed a few cilantro leaves on top of the chili. I put the guacamole, natural yogurt, and lime pieces in their own bowls to have as optional sides to compliment the chili. I think the chili turned out really well!
And sorry, I did not do a dessert for this meal (my neighbors don't eat desserts :)) so I just scooped some Ben & Jerry's ice cream for those who wanted it. I hope you try out this recipe and find it just as scrumptious as I did!