I have a love hate relationship with snack day. Let’s start with the hate part. I have been jealous of the moms who are able to whip up twenty or so all-natural healthy individual kid-sized fruit pies on their snack day. Ugh! Really! I usually get whatever the very capable and professional bakers at Costco are able to whip up for me. But, I love it when it’s a holiday! I’m not sure why I need a theme to get my domestic creativity going, but I do, and I feel a holiday/snack day combo coming on.

What you’ll need for your Cinco de Mayo Tacos and Maracas:

A pack of lemon cream filled cookies (each cookie makes two tacos)

Chocolate hazelnut spread

Green icing (the tube is the easiest)

Round red cinnamon candy

Seedless Grapes

Pretzel sticks

Step 1 – Start with the taco shells.

Cut each cookie in half, so they are semi-circles and are now the shape of taco shells. Then separate the cookies with a knife, leaving the filling on one side and the other side bare.

Step 2 – Next is the filling for the tacos.

Soften the chocolate spread by whipping it. This will make it easier to handle and squeeze into the shells. With a frosting bag and tip* fill the bag with the spread and then squeeze the chocolate filling in the shells. The tacos now have “meat” and “cheese” in them.

*If you don’t have a frosting bag and tip, you can always fill a sandwich bag with the spread and then cut a small corner of the bag to create an opening and squeeze the filling out through the hole.

Step 3 – Last garnish the tacos.

Use the green icing to mimic the lettuce by drawing a wavy line across the filling in the taco shells. Then place a few cinnamon candies (these are the tomatoes) on top. The “tomatoes” will stay in place better if the “lettuce” is a little soft. My six year-old was very good at garnishing.

Store the tacos in the refrigerator while you make the maracas.

Step 4 – Time for the maracas.

Remove the grapes from the stems. Then gently push a pretzel stick into the grape where the stem was. The grape is the rattle and the pretzel is the handle (even if you try to shake them, they won’t make any noise, we tried). Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat until you have the number of maracas you want.

Now you are ready for the Cinco de Mayo fiesta para los ninos! With Azul moving to first grade next year, I bet I’m going to miss snack day, but I won’t miss the all-natural healthy individual kid-sized fruit pie envy.

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!