Greek Salad with Meat

Second Taxol infusion. The weekly routine is establishing itself: Monday infusion, Tuesday-Wednesday recovery, Thursday-Sunday gradual improvement. It's a cycle, predictable in its misery, which is oddly comforting. I know what's coming now. I know that Monday will be the IV and the recliner and Maria saying "you're doing great." I know that Tuesday will be the couch and the aching joints and the fuzzy brain. I know that by Saturday I'll almost feel human. Knowing the shape of the suffering makes it more bearable. It's the surprises that break you.

I went back to work this week. Part-time — three half-days, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, the recovery days when I feel least terrible. Dr. Pham adjusted my schedule so I'm doing paperwork and phone calls, not surgeries or physical exams. My hands are too numb from the neuropathy to do delicate work — I can't feel the tip of a needle, can't trust my grip on instruments. So I answer phones and update records and talk to pet owners and feel useful, which is the point. Being useful is the thing that keeps me tethered to myself. Without it, I'm just a patient. With it, I'm a vet tech who also happens to have cancer. The distinction matters enormously.

Mason has been reading chapter books. Real ones, with chapters and no pictures (well, some pictures — he's five, not a purist). He's devouring the Nate the Great mysteries, one a day, reading them in bed before sleep with a flashlight because I told him lights-out is at 8:30 and he has interpreted this as "overhead lights out, flashlight acceptable." I have chosen not to correct this interpretation because he is reading, and a child who reads under the covers with a flashlight is a child who will be fine, who will always be fine, who has found the thing that will carry him through whatever life throws.

Lily has started preschool prep conversations with Rosa. She'll start preschool in the fall, and Rosa is working on letters and numbers and sharing, which Lily approaches with the enthusiasm of someone who believes "sharing" means "other people give me things." Her letter recognition is spotty but her horse identification is flawless — she can name breeds from a picture book with the accuracy of a junior equine expert. She knows what a palomino is. She does not know what the letter Q is. Priorities.

I made meatloaf on Thursday. Mom's recipe — ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, ketchup on top (the Dawson family ketchup debate: Dad insists on ketchup, Brett advocates for brown sugar glaze, I use both because I am a diplomat). Meatloaf is unfashionable and old-fashioned and looks terrible and tastes like a hug. It takes five minutes to mix, an hour to bake, and it makes the house smell like a family that eats dinner at the table, which we used to be and which I'm trying to get us back to, one ketchup-glazed loaf at a time.

The meatloaf on Thursday reminded me what I’d been missing — not just the food, but the act of making something real for the people I love. On the weeks when the neuropathy is worse or the brain fog is too thick, I needed a recipe I could turn to that had the same hearty, “dinner at the table” feeling without the hour in the oven. This Greek Salad with Meat has become that recipe for us: it’s fast enough for a recovery-day Thursday, filling enough that the kids don’t ask for a second dinner, and it still makes me feel like a person who cooks — not just a patient who reheats.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (or ground lamb)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large romaine lettuce head, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, sliced into half-moons
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup pepperoncini peppers, sliced
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil (for dressing)
1 teaspoon dried oregano (for dressing)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Season and brown the meat. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and season with oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Cook, breaking it apart, until browned and cooked through, about 10–12 minutes. Drain excess fat and let rest for 5 minutes.
Make the dressing. Whisk together the red wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons olive oil, dried oregano, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Build the salad base. Arrange the chopped romaine in a large salad bowl or on a platter. Top with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, olives, and pepperoncini.
Add the warm meat. Spoon the cooked, seasoned meat over the salad while still warm. The warmth slightly wilts the lettuce edges in the best way.
Finish and serve. Scatter crumbled feta over the top, drizzle with the dressing, and serve immediately. Pass extra dressing at the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

Greek Salad with Meat — The Recipe That Keeps Me Tethered to the Table