In the world of the home cook, failure is always an option. Having no formal training, mediocre resources, and a variety of palates to please can make home cooking quite challenging at times. This is especially true when you’re trying to lean in to healthier food. Tonight’s dinner, for which I had high hopes, was given a lukewarm reception by the family. But instead of hanging my head and grousing about it, I decided to learn from it and build a better recipe.

The concept for dinner tonight was a recipe my wife found on Facebook for sweet potato chicken bowls. The photo looked great: golden-brown chicken perches next to brilliant orange sweet potatoes, the two of them forming a pretty arc around an avocado salad and a crema. It looked healthy AND delicious!

The results in our kitchen left something to be desired. The chicken was the best part. The sweet potatoes were good but lacking a certain something. The avocado salad was middling. The crema was good, but the home-made sauce had failed so we improvised a crema with hot sauce and sour cream. Overall the dish seemed healthy but kind of bland. My wife ate some, and then simply put it aside. My daughter barely touched it. I ate the whole thing, but I was hungry and wanted to really get a feel for what this recipe needed more of.

First: the chicken. This was generally seen as the best part of the dish. It was done right: seasoned with garlic salt and pepper, allowed to rest for a while, and then cooked in olive oil over medium heat. A classic preparation of chicken in this house. No notes, no changes. People were pretty happy with this.

Next: the sweet potato wedges. I love sweet potatoes, but nobody else in the family shares my enthusiasm for the humble yam. This recipe didn’t do any favors for the perception of the sweet potato around here. The recipe called for us to toss it with oil, salt, and paprika. Our paprika is probably out of date because these were pretty bland. They were good dipped in the crema, but you can only put so much lipstick on a pig. Next time, we’ll bump these up with some better flavoring.

Third: the avocado salad. This was a simple salad with avocado, red onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and lime juice. It was not bad, but I think our avocado was underripe, and the lime juice wasn’t as bright as fresh lime juice is.

Fourth: the crema. Our scratch-made crema failed: the avocado was far too unripe to be successful, and it just tasted gritty. We recovered by making another with some sour cream and avocado hot sauce, but it wasn’t quite enough to bring the bowl together.

Sadly, this meal was widely considered a flop. I’m doubly sad because I’ve been wanting to drive the family toward healthier meals, but this one didn’t win over any converts. But I refuse to give up! I am nothing if not obnoxiously stubborn. I will re-make, and improve, this recipe. The sweet potatoes will be seasoned better. The chicken will be more inspired. The salad, brighter; the crema, fresh and not gritty. I will convert this flock and turn them to healthy food. It can be done!