Dinner menu ideas for the month of May – simple, seasonal, and from scratch. Including easy slow cooker dishes, using leftovers and sides.
I hope you are able to use these seasonal menus as a starting point for your own family menus. Not sure why to menu plan? Check out all the great reasons here, plus get a free seasonal menu planning eBook!
May – the promise of warmer weather, the start of grilling season, and hopefully fresh garden lettuce available. There are quite a few fresh seasonal choices for May (see a list of seasonal foods for May here) and this month also finds us working hard to use up last year’s food from the freezer so we have room for the new season’s preserved food.
Asparagus is high on our list of seasonal foods and I love a good artichoke (which I get pretty much to myself in our house, ha – more for me!), but May is also busy for us so you’ll find a lot of quick meals, too. I hope this list of dinner menu ideas helps you plan your family’s meals for May!
As always, if you need more ideas for menu planning, you can always check out these articles in our archives:
- Menu Planning 101 (dinners)
- 5 steps to frugal menu planning
- Seasonal cooking through the year
- Weekly family menus
- Monthly dinner menus
May Dinner Menu Ideas
Savory Tomato Seafood Stew, green salad, Easy French Baguettes (freeze one loaf, cooked, for next week)
Rotisserie-Style Slow Cooker Spiced Whole Chicken, cabbage-carrot slaw with spicy vinaigrette
Spicy Noodle Salad with Asparagus, grilled chicken thighs with Addictive Tomato Chutney
Chicken-Bean Haystacks: freezer beans cooked with chili-powdered seasoned tomato sauce over tortilla chips topped with: shredded leftover chicken, shredded lettuce & cheese, chopped onions, salsa and guacamole and/or sour cream
Slow Cooker Sweet Chili Chicken & Vegetables served over noodles or rice
Spring Asparagus Quiche, green salad with cranberries & feta with a balsamic vinaigrette
Quick Parmesan-Herb Crusted Baked Fish, Easy French Baguettes (made the week before & frozen) green salad
Grilled sausages, grilled asparagus, onions & sweet peppers, leftover French bread
Chicken-Lime Lettuce Wraps, rice, Asian Slaw
Potato & Caramelized Onion Frittata, Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
Cajun Beef on Crispy Spiced Potatoes, Caesar Slaw
Soft Tacos with homemade salsa & 10 Minute Baked Chips
Lemon-Garlic Roasted Chicken & Vegetables, Orange-Almond Salad
Individual Chicken-Tomato Shepherd’s Pies (made with leftover roasted chicken), Three Pea Salad with Feta & Walnuts
Sauteed pork chops with Spicy Rhubarb Chutney, Simple Corn, Pepper and Onion Saute, green salad
Mediterranean Scramble with Spinach & Bacon, green salad, toasted Easy Artisan Bread
Chicken-Lime Enchiladas, Quick Corn & Bean Chopped Salad
Homemade Tomato Soup, Black Bean Quesadillas
Easy Chicken-Spinach Calzone, green salad
Greek Style Shrimp and Orzo, spinach salad with creamy feta or best ranch dressing
Note: our family menu always have a couple of standards: Saturdays alternate between burgers on homemade buns (or pigs-in-blankets) & fries and homemade pizza; Sundays are mostly on-your-own leftovers (if nothing is available, a quick pasta is made using our frozen roasted tomato sauce or pesto).
I hope you enjoy and are able to use some of these favorite family meals of ours. You can follow me on Pinterest for even more simple, seasonal and from scratch dinner ideas!
Hi Jami,
Just want you to know that I made the seafood stew tonight for dinner…it was FANTASTIC! I’m trying to use up my pantry from last season’s garden, too. I made a couple of adjustments- I made a homemade arrabbiata sauce with 1 quart of canned tomatoes, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, 2 teaspoons of red chili flakes and 1 tsp. of salt. I cooked it down until it was as thick as tomato sauce and added it to another quart of canned tomatoes. I also added 1 small can of green chilis, and 1/2 red and 1/2 green bell peppers. I followed the rest of your recipe except for the seafood- I used 1 bag of small shrimp and 1/2 lb of small scallops…my husband does not care for fish…and it was absolutely delectable! Thank you for such a great inspiration for a Friday dinner! This is a keeper! I’m going to try and tackle the baguettes next week- this week we cheated with Texas Toast we had leftover from hot browns on Saturday for the Kentucky Derby. 🙂 I also want you to know that you inspired me to make a blackboard paint canvas menu so we can keep track of our weekly dinners- it has helped so much with meal planning and keeping down the grocery costs!! Thanks! Michele
Wow, that does sound fantastic, Michele – I’m so glad you were inspired by the recipe AND the menu idea. 🙂
Oh, Jami your recipes always sound good and look delicious in your pictures. The seafood stew sounds like one I need to try very soon. Thanks so much for sharing your creations here.
Thank you so much, Leslie! I’m so glad you’ve found something you want to make. 🙂