A quick and tasty weeknight Cinco De Mayo celebration

We have an intense love of Mexican food at LMP, so what better way to celebrate than with a quick and easy make-your-own taco party. Taco parties are super simple because you can prep almost everything in advance. We shredded the crisp iceberg lettuce, made the homemade salsa and mixed up some delicious ranch dip the night before. Put each into a bowl and they're good to go in the fridge until the next day. Easy as can be. Short on time? There are tons of amazing jarred salsas out there - try Whole Foods for a great selection. The only thing we recommend doing day of is sautéing the meat so it's fresh! We ditched our usual vases for colorful tomato cans from last week's spaghetti and meatball dinner. What could be easier? We loved serving chips out of these colorful terra-cotta pots, which we created using a quick coat of spray paint. Spray paint is the best way to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Spray your pots the night before, and hang a colorful and traditional Del Sol cut Paper banner; we found this one at Party City. To add a little crunch, we served up some red, white and green veggies -- a nod to the colors of the Mexican Flag. Wash and slice all veggies the night before and store in plastic bags. The veggies were served in single serving shot glasses with a little ranch dip on the bottom of each. Margaritas and beer are both no-brainers for a Mexican Fiesta. If you have time, homemade margaritas are worth the extra few steps. This recipe is one of our favorites. We topped off our margaritas with mustache straws and covered our beers with colorful serapes, both from Party City. Need something sweet? We found these delicious Salted Margarita Lollipops on Etsy.

Feliz Cinco De Mayo!!

All photos above taken by Dave Robbins Photography.