The most frequent question I am asked when people find out that we are serious about hiking the PCT is what we are doing for food. Apparently, this is the most mysterious part. Tortilla chicken soup is something our family greatly enjoys eating for a normal dinner at home. It contains very few ingredients; it's a simple, nourishing meal; and the warm hearty nature makes it great for backpacking. I figured I'd give it a go and try some things to make an MRE out of it.

The recipe is as follows first for a large batch (about 4 servings) then a single batch. Each batch feeds between 2 or 3 people. Scroll down for a tutorial on how to dehydrate chicken stock and rehydration instructions. All our dehydrated items have been tested for at least 8 months, though many last for over a year if properly dehydrated.

One Large Batch of Dehydrated Tortilla Chicken Soup
approximately 13 cups dehydrated

9 cups finely ground stale tortilla chips or stale tortillas
4 quarts chicken stock
2 medium squash or 6 sweet potatoes dehydrated
2 cups dehydrated salsa
2 cups NIDO whole milk powder (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE NON-FAT)
1/2 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup oregano

One Single Serving of Dehydrated Tortilla Chicken Soup
approximately 2.5 cups dehydrated

1 1/2 cups ground stale tortilla chips or stale tortillas
1 pint chicken stock
1/4 of a squash or 1 sweet potato dehydrated
1/4 cup dehydrated salsa
1/4 cup NIDO whole milk powder (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE NON-FAT)
4 Tblspns garlic powder
2 Tblspns oregano

As with any recipe, test this before heading out into the backcountry without any backup. This is the way our family likes the taste. You might prefer less salsa and more garlic. You might want it spicier and will omit some of the NIDO.

Non-fat milk powder creates a very strange blend when mixed with the salsa. I don't know what the combination does (the acidity of the salsa maybe?) but it doesn't rehydrate smoothely and leaves a chunky, almost spoiled flavor. Use NIDO or some other whole milk powder. You can find NIDO on Amazon (really expensive!), at Walmart (pretty darn cheap), and at many ethnic food stores (also cheap). You can find whole milk powder at Natures, Whole Foods, and many natural food stores in the bulk food sections. Whole milk powder is completely stable at room temperature and can last over 3 years without beginning to spoil or loose nutrients. If you are backpacking, you need the fat anyway!

Dehydrating the Chicken Stock
Since you are basically trying to dehydrate a liquid, you need a medium to pour into and hold all the tasty goodness. This is where the chips come in. They absorb the chicken stock and then when dehydrated the eliminate the water. The tasty goodness is trapped inside the chips and stores remarkably well.


The tortilla chips always work best if they are stale. They tend to grind finer and absorb better. If available, use stale ones. Whatever the case, grind them up as fine as your food processor can get them.

The counter and floor didn't fare too well when I began to stir, but the dogs thought it was wonderful.
Pour the chicken stock in a large bowl, and then dump the ground chips on top. If you were brilliant like I was and grabbed the smaller of my large bowls, stir carefully. If you were much more intelligent and picked the biggest large bowl, stir however fast you would like. Then set aside overnight.



If your glop looks chunky in the morning, just run it through the food processor till smooth. If for some reason it is not runny enough, add a bit more stock. The final product should look and have the consistency of pablum.
In the morning, you should have something the consistency of baby food. It will probably look about as appetizing as well. Trust me, in the end, it will taste good.



At this point it should smell much better. The Barracuda seems to feel this stuff tastes like the outside breading of a chicken nugget. I have not eaten it at this point, but feel free. He assures me it is delicious!

Pour the goop onto a fruit leather tray and dehydrate at 145-155 degrees for 10 hours. You need to keep it up to at least 145 in order to properly kill any lurking bacteria. Any lower will not keep the temperature high enough for long enough.

Check it at 10 hours. The entire tray should be cracked and extremely brittle. If the pieces don't pull up in stiff blocks, they need more time. If while pulling the pieces up, you discover a section that is still squishy underneath or pliable, they need more time.

Once completely dry, give them another whirl in the food processor. If the pieces are brittle enough, the consistency should be close to sand. This means your soup will rehydrate in a matter of a couple minutes. The smaller the pieces, the quicker the rehydration. Mix thoroughly with the other dehydrated ingredients and package. Two and a half cups makes approximately 2-3 servings. It's rich stuff. As always, try it before you take outside and depend on it.


To Rehydrate
Use twice as much water as powder. Bring water to a boil, stir in powder and boil for 3 minutes. Stir thoroughly. Turn off heat, put the lid on the pot and let sit 5 minutes stirring occasionally. At this point it should be a smooth soup. Enjoy!

First off, let's clear up the Sweet Potato versus Yam thing. Often here in the U.S. the two are interchangeable. Not so much when it comes to the nutrition inside each one. Unfortunately yams got the short end of the vitamin stick. They are mainly just a tasty, starch-based root crop. Sweet Potatoes, however, are rather awesome wonder foods!


The greatness of these veggies is beginning to show itself on the commercial market, but be aware that studies (National Food Administration of Sweden, 2002) have found commercial processing to be quite unhealthy. Due to the high heat of the processing, many nutrients are lost and harmful carcinogens (PAH - poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and Acrylamide) are created. Unfortunately, those commercial sweet potato chips are quite nasty for you.

Do not fret, just make them at home!

Much like standard potatoes, there are some nutritional concerns with the ways they are normally dehydrated. The commercial production companies run into problems due to the high heat and frying often used. Luckily, you can avoid both of those from at-home processing, but you still need to maximize the nutrition.

Most importantly, do not boil your sweet potatoes. The water removes large amounts of Vitamin C and greatly diminishes the nutritional value of this awesome tuber. Bake them and then let them cool. By baking and then allowing the potatoes to cool, you are converting the starch into resistant starch. Resistant starch is not broken down by the small intestine, but is utilized by the large intestine. By being broken down later, the glycemic index is drastically reduced. The digestible fiber and vitamin content of the veggies can also be increased significantly if you bake them first. One medium baked sweet potato contain 438 percent of your daily needs of Vitamin A and 37 percent of your daily need of vitamin C.

There is also a very nice smattering of B2 (riboflavin), Vitamin E, iron and potassium all smushed in there. The potassium is of large importance due its ability to regulate your electrolytes, metabolism and hormones. Anytime we can sneak large amounts of potassium in when we backpack, I'm all for it.

In short, sweet potatoes are pretty great way to sneak in some of the important nutrients that come in fresh foods when fresh really aren't available. We mash our sweet potatoes and use them as a base in soups, stews, rice and burritos. You would be amazed at well the flavor blends, but ramps up the nutrients of other foods.

If you are making sweet potato chips, you would do them just as we do our standard potatoes. Click over Here, and follow this process. You may want to slice them thinner, if you are really wanting something "chip" like.


Dehydrating Mashed Sweet Potatoes


Peelers often remove the nutrient layer just under the skins. If possible, try to peel them by hand.
Bake your sweet potatoes just like you normally would, but turn off the oven about a half hour early. You want then fairly smurshy, but not completely cooked through. Leave the potatoes in the oven and allow the potatoes to cool. This will allow the starch to convert, while the potatoes are also finishing their cooking slowly. Once cool, the skins will bubble and the potatoes can easily be peeled.


You could use a food processor, but a simple fork smashing or potato masher will do.

Once peeled, mash the potatoes into a fairly smooth glop. They don't have to be blended up or look like they would be read for the dinner table. Mainly you just want a nice blend you can sort of smear.


Try to have your glop a reasonably similar thickness for even drying. We shoot for somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 inch.

Using a spatula smear the glop onto a fruit leather tray and dehydrate at 135 degrees for 8-10 hours. Check at 8 hours and see.


Not quite yet...

The above photo is not dry yet. You don't want any give in the sweet potatoes. Often times you will think they are done and then find pockets on the undersides which are still wet or soft. Put them on again and give them a little more time.


Done

When truly dry, they will be brittle. You should be able to pick the entire disk up like a Frisbee or it will crack clean in the middle. If they are even remotely bendable, they aren't ready.

Think Tang

Break apart the brittle disk and food process till you have a fine powder. Due to the density of these veggies, if they are left in chunks their rehydration time can be quite lengthy. They also can provide a chunky feel to your food. By pulverizing them you get a smooth, hardy quality and a really nice mix between sweet and savory.


Once powdered, these will store for over a year and be perfectly wonderful to mix into darn near anything. It is another great way I get my boys (both the 38 year old and the 7 year old) to eat veggies. Muffins, rice, stew, casserole, soup, you name it and sweet potatoes work pretty well all mixed in.

As I attempted to find pictures for this post, I realized we have no pictures of us eating while hiking. We are all apparently too fixated on ingesting the food to have taken any pictures. So the pictures in this post are completely unrelated to content and a weird selection of various backpacking pictures over the years.

Green Lakes and Broken Top in the Three Sisters Wilderness

Most of the last couple months has been quite filled with food planning for the Pacific Crest Trail. There are three ways that I know of people planning their food purchases and preparation for long distance backpacking. Some people use a bit of a couple methods, but these are the main three:

Plan A: Wing it, and purchase most of your food along the way. This would leave me completely out of control and a total neurotic freak. It would also probably cause us to be greatly malnourished and blood sugar yo-yoing. For some, it is really great, but not us. The Barracuda likes structure and plans every food choice the night before so that he knows exactly what we are going to eat and when. Perhaps he is a bit too much like me....

Plan B: Save up a stack of money and go for one large, all-out purchasing spree. This eliminates most all the planning sessions into one, rather intense, weekend. Jules prefers this method. However, it means he has purchased a lot of the same food and quickly tired of it. Knowing myself, I think if I tried to plan this way I would have an aneurism from stress and worry about not having enough money, not having enough time, what if I forgot something, etc.

Plan C: Meticulously plan each meal, each food drop, count them numerous times to make sure you know exactly how much of each meal to prepare, fixate, calculate exactly how much each will weigh, panic, look over maps to see where there will be weight and water issues, revise, and then spend months dehydrating and fitting those foods into the usual grocery shopping. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner here! That is me.

Elowah Falls on the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. The waterfall was so intense all of our clothing wet out in the less than 30 seconds it took to cross. The sound was deafening. It was awesome.
Food Options
At this point, we have been fiddling with backpacking food for a bit and have figured out a few different meals we really like. Variety is the most important part of any diet, backpacking or not (see this major study, or just Google search about it). I don't know how people can subsist on eating only Lipton noodle dinners, Top Ramen, and synthetic mashed potatoes when they hike. It would just kick my butt! Every morning we eat a trail or granola bar for breakfast. No eating until we are moving is the rule and it is a great motivator for us to be up and out in less than 15 minutes. The sugar gives us a morning rush for the day and makes sure we stop for lunch. Breakfast is always taken care of, but lunch and dinner were up for grabs. First and foremost, I sat down and tried to think up every single possible meal I could easily and quickly rehydrate for us to eat. The list became 9 viable options for dinner and 5 general ideas for lunches.

Dinners
Nachos/Burritos
Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce
Enchiladas
Beef Stew
Beef and Quinoa soup
Salsa Potatoes
Tortilla Chicken Soup
Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes
Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto sauce

Lunches
Salmon and Cheddar Wraps
Hummus with Various Veggies and Fruit
Vegetable Soup
Curried Lentils or Lentil Soup
Flavored Oatmeal

Quick Note: Due to how blood sugar sensitive The Barracuda and I are, we need to stop and actually eat a lunch. If we don't, we go into sugar shock by the end of the day. We just can't pull the mileage without an actual meal. Pop Tarts, candy bars, sugary granola or trail bars, and many other snacks people use as lunch substitutes cause us to spike and bonk really fast. We cannot ride a sugar high, though we will carry goo shots for emergencies. We have tried snacking for lunch a handful of times and the results are downright scary. Our lunchtime meal, from backpacks off to backpacks on, lasts a complete total of 20 minutes (The Barracuda and I actually set a timer when we solo to be sure we don't dawdle.) In many instances, we will eat while we walk using 16 ounce, wide-mouth Lexan jars (featured here if you scroll down) to keep wraps, veggies, fruits and hummus, leftover burritos, or cold pasta salad from the night before. I wake up early, make the food, and we pull it out when we need it. A waterproof lid, highly durable while incredibly lightweight Lexan, food grade, BPA free, completely reusable and non-disposable, and all with a price tag of under 6 bucks! We dig them.

Lastly, when the dogs join us they are going to need extra calorie food mix-ins as well. They cannot physically carry the amount of regular dog food necessary to keep up with their caloric burn. As a result, I am needing to dehydrate their food as well. High calorie dog food glop can be purchased (at an astronomical price), but it contains all sorts of weird things I wouldn't want our puppies eating. So, Optimus gets to rehydrate their high calorie glop as he walks during the day in a specially designated Nalgene bottle.

Guadalupe chasing sandpipers in Long Beach, Washington. The birds swarm and swoop all around you, splitting and regrouping. She doesn't care much for coastal trails, but she loves the beaches.


Mail Drops
The last 4 months have been spent figuring out where each town with a post office is located, which ones we would be stopping at, and what exactly would be in each box we mailed to ourselves. By mailing our food and extra provisions to ourselves along the way, we can keep our backpacks as light as possible. In southern California, I am not going to need winter gloves; the average daytime temperature is over 100 degrees. In northern Washington, I'm not going to need a sun hat; it normally rains solid for 5 days a week. By negotiating mail drops you can send yourself things you think you will need at certain times and send home anything you don't think will be necessary anymore.

A Town Guide is a book which tells the hiker exactly where (down to the tenth of a mile) each town is located along the trail and what to expect when you get there - are there hotels, showers, grocery stores, ATM machines, gas stations, and most importantly, post offices? Many times the exact hours of the post office are listed along with an address and a phone number. In this way you can directly calculate how many miles you will walk each day, and how many days there are in between post offices. Calculate in an extra meal just in case, and a zero day here and there and you have a basic itinerary for your mail drops. You also have excellent math curriculum for homeschooling. "You want to not starve, you better carry that one Boy!" Perhaps not quite...

We are planning to begin hiking an average of 18.5 miles per day. The Barracuda can already do around 20-23 miles per day easy, but we want to begin slowly. In the end we are thinking 25-27 miles per day will be our average, but by planning around 20 we are safe. Any extra food we can angel to others or at least give ourselves choices and extra calories. Each mail drop will contain one extra days worth of food, except every third mail drop. By making the third mail drop an exact number of days, we can cut down on excess weight. More than likely we will not be needing the extra day and they are just for feasting days of extra calories.



Our Itinerary

Leaving El Campo - 4 days worth of food
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; Tuna and Cheddar Wraps

Dinners: Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Burritos; Cheesy Potatoes

Mt. Laguna - 5 days worth of food
Lunches: Tuna and Cheddar Wraps; Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils; Flavored Oatmeal; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Dinners: Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto; Vegetable Soup; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Cheesy Potatoes with Vegetables; Enchilladas

Warmer Springs - 4 days worth of food (even drop, no extra meal)
Lunches: Tuna and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils

Dinners: Enchiladas; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Burritos; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Idyllwild - 6 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; Tuna and Cheddar Wraps; Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils, Flavored Oatmeal

Dinners: Beef Stew, Beef and Quinoa Soup, Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Tortilla Chicken Soup

Big Bear City - 5 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Vegetable Soup

Dinners: Beef and Quinoa Soup; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Salsa Potatoes; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

WrightWood - 4 days worth of food (Grocery Store, even drop, no extra meal)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; Lentils; Flavored Oatmeal

Dinners: Burritos; Vegetable Soup; Enchiladas; Tortilla Chicken Soup

Agua Dulce - 6 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Vegetable Soup

Dinners: Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Salsa Potatoes; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Beef Stew

Tehachapi - 8 days worth of food (Grocery Store, weight restriction)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; (3) Salmon and Crackers; Lentils; Flavored Oatmeal; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Dinners: Beef Stew; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Enchiladas; Salsa Potatoes

(weight restriction means I will be maxing out my weight limits with food. This is the longest stretch for me to carry food and poundage is getting huge. This means no tortillas for wraps or burritos and no cheddar cheese)

Echo Lake Resort - 4 days worth of food (Grocery Store, even drop no extra meal)
Lunches:(2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; Vegetable Soup; Lentils

Dinners: Burritos; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Tortilla Chicken Soup

Sierra City - 5 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2)Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal

Dinners:Beef Stew; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Enchiladas; Salsa Potatoes; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

Belden Town - 6 days worth of food
Lunches: (2) Flavored Oatmeal; (3) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils

Dinners: Burritos; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Salsa Potatoes; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

Burney Falls Camp Store - 4 days worth of food (Grocery Store, even drop no extra meal)
Lunches:(2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; Flavored Oatmeal; Salmon

Dinners:Beef Stew; Salsa Potatoes; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Enchiladas

Castella - 7 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches:(2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; (2) Flavored Oatmeal, Lentils

Dinners:Burritos; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Beef Stew; Salsa Potatoes; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Enchiladas; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

Kennedy Meadows - 5 days worth of food (even drop, no extra meal)
Lunches:Vegetable Soup; Flavored Oatmeal; Lentils; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps

Dinners:Beef Stew; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Enchiladas; Salsa Potatoes; Tortilla Chicken Soup

Independence - 6 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2) Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Vegetable Soup; Lentils

Dinners:Beef and Quinoa Soup; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Spaghetti with Veggies Sauce; Beef Stew; Salsa Potatoes

Vermillion Valley Resort - 5 days worth of food
Lunches: Vegetable Soup; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Lentils

Dinners:Beef and Quinoa Soup; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Enchiladas

Tuolumne Meadows - 8 days worth of food (Jules' Arrival; Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2)Vegetable Soup; (2)Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; (3) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Dinners:Beef Stew; Burritos; Enchiladas; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Salsa Potatoes; Spaghetti with Veggies Sauce; Tortilla Chicken; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

8 packages of extra calorie dog food

Seiad Valley - 4 days (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2)Fresh Veggies, Fruits, and Hummus; Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Vegetable Soup

Dinners:Beef and Quinoa Soup; Enchiladas; Salsa Potatoes; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

4 packages extra calorie dog food

Hyatt Lake - 4 days (even drop, no extra meal)
Lunches: (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Vegetable Soup; Flavored Oatmeal

Dinners: Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Burritos; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Beef Stew

4 packages extra calorie dog food

Crater Lake Lodge - 4 days worth of food
Lunches:(2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Dinners:Salsa Potatoes; Beef Stew; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Enchiladas

4 packages extra calorie dog food

Cascade Summit - 7 days worth of food
Lunches:(2) Flavored Oatmeal; (3) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Vegetable Soup; Lentils

Dinners:Burritos; Enchiladas; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Beef Stew; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

7 packages of extra calorie dog food

Olallie Lake - 4 days worth of food (even drop, no extra meal)
Lunches:(2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Flavored Oatmeal; Lentils

Dinners:Enchiladas; Salsa Potatoes; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Tortilla Chicken Soup

4 packages of extra calorie dog food

Cascade Locks - 6 days worth of food (Grocery Store)
Lunches: (2)Fresh Veggies, Fruits and Hummus; (3) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils

Dinners:Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Vegetable Soup; Enchiladas; Beef and Quinoa Soup; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

6 packages of extra calorie dog food

White Pass - 5 days worth of food
Lunches:(2)Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Vegetable Soup; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce; Lentils

Dinners:Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Burritos; Beef Stew; Tortilla Chicken Soup; Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes

Snoqualmie Pass - 5 days worth of food
Lunches:Vegetable Soup; Lentils; Flavored Oatmeal; (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps

Dinners:Cheesy Vegetable Potatoes; Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce; Beef Stew; Enchiladas; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Stehekin - 4 days worth of food
Lunches: (2) Salmon and Cheddar Wraps; Lentils; Vegetable Soup

Dinners:Tortilla Chicken Soup; Burritos; Beef Stew; Tortellini with Veggies and Pesto Sauce

Sun setting over cloudline in the Cascades on Nesmith Point. Definitely one of the most incredible things and incredible hikes I have ever seen or done.

That list is a combination of umpteen hours planning, dehydrating, and nutritional research. It feels really good to have finalized. With impending post office closures in some of the small towns and a couple changes to ownership, a few shifts might need to be made, but at this point the food will stay the same. We've been acquiring it all slowly but surely. By adding 50 dollars to each months groceries, we've been able to fit in darn near most of it. A couple of items (like packaged salmon/tuna and bulk boxes of trail bars) are going to be topped off with extra PayPal funds. In general, the food for all of us cost of just under 600 dollars. By spacing it out, the blow wasn't quite a hard, and it looks like we might just pull it off. Three quarters of it is already weighed, measured, packaged, and dehydrated. Now we just have to figure out where to put all of it!