Lasagna, John's Bomb-Ass

Disclosure: The ingredients I'm about to list will make a completely full crock-pot worth of stuff. I'd suggest dropping it by a little but I'll leave it to you what you'd like to drop.

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef; 2 onion, chopped; 4 garlic cloves, minced; 2 (28 ounce) can tomato sauce; 2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste; 24 ounces cottage cheese (we used 2%); 1 cup grated parmesan cheese or 1⁄2 cup asiago cheese; 24 ounces whole grain lasagna noodles, uncooked; 32 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese; 2 Zucchini; 1 lb Mushrooms, chopped; 2 Jalapenos; 1 Bunch of Cilantro, fine

Seasonings:

Salt; Black Pepper; Crushed Red Pepper Flakes; Zatar / Sumac; Oregano; Thyme

The Sauce:

1) Prep the Onion, Garlic, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Jalapenos and Cilantro. 2) Get a pan hot and start browning the beef. 3) Season the beef with a teaspoon of salt and a thorough distribution of pepper. Addendum: The texture you want the zucchini to be at determines when you add them. If you want them soft, put them in with the beef, or even before. If you want slightly firm (al dente) save it to go in with everything else. 4) Add in the onions. Stir until onions are becoming transparent. 5) Add in all the rest of the prepped veggies. 6) Season with a teaspoon of salt, a goodly amount of black pepper (twenty grinds or so), two teaspoons red pepper flakes, one tablespoon Zatar, one tablespoon thyme, one tablespoon oregano. 7) Keep stirring until you see that all the meat is cooked. 8) Add in (perhaps transfer to a separate giant pot first) the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Stir until merged. Heat until the sauce is hot. 9) Season with about 8 more grinds of pepper, another tablespoon of Zatar and another two teaspoons of oregano and thyme.

The Assembly:

While Room in Crock Pot > Desired { 1) Put a layer of the sauce in the crock pot 2) Put a double-layer of the noodles on top (break the noodles to make the sizing work) 3) Put a layer of cheese (cottage and mozzarella and parm) }

Basically just keep repeating until you're at the height you want.

Cook on Low for 4-5 Hours. Check the noodles for done-ness.

Enjoy and give feedback; seasonings were wildly approximate.