Last week, after spending a fun Memorial Day weekend with family and friends, I felt as if I awoke Tuesday morning from a Rip Van Winkle-like slumber only to discover that I’d missed out on summer altogether. Despite a weekend of 90 degree highs, temperatures for the rest of that week struggled to escape the low 60’s. To make matters worse, the unseasonably cool temperatures were accompanied by overcast skies and, from time to time, a drizzly rain. Either I’d slept through the entirety of the summer season, or Washington DC had gotten stuck in a time loop that was forcing it to redo the cool, wet weather of early spring.

To put it bluntly, it was really cold. My plan to make the season’s inaugural visit to my community pool suffered a severe setback. However, mid-week, as I was running some errands wrapped warmly in a jacket I had retrieved from the back of my closet, it occurred to me that the arrival of this unfortunate weather pattern presented an opportunity. If spring had decided to do an unexpected rewind, then I would do likewise by revisiting a few spring recipes that had piqued my food blogger’s interest but which for one reason or another had fallen by the wayside.

Today’s post features one of those recipes. It’s an adaptation of Cooking Light’s Berry Lemonade Bars. I freely admit that I was drawn to the recipe by that tried-and-true marketing tool, the drool-worthy photograph on the cover of a magazine placed strategically in the grocery store checkout line.

In this case, it was the April 2015 issue of Cooking Light. As I was loading a week’s worth of groceries onto the conveyor belt, my attention was caught by the magazine’s cover photo showing a plate of glistening squares of lemon, raspberry, strawberry bars. Everything about the image suggested spring, from the mint leaves and curls of lemon zest used as garnishes to the fresh raspberries and strawberries scattered around the plate to the pastel pinks, mauves, and yellows of the bars themselves. Unable to resist the urge to try the recipe out at home, I grabbed a copy of the magazine from its rack and tossed it onto some cans of chickpeas and a few packages of mixed baby greens as they inched forward toward the beeping barcode scanner.

Since then I’ve been tinkering with the recipe. I started with the version that includes raspberries, since I figured it was an easy way to up my fruit consumption, and raspberries are an especially rich source of both fiber and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients.

But then I tweaked the recipe by adding more fiber and reducing its sugar content, giving it an even better nutritional profile. The extra fiber comes from using white whole-wheat flour exclusively in the crust versus Cooking Light’s ratio of one part white whole-wheat to two parts all purpose. A smaller amount of sugar was justified because I wanted to emphasize the natural flavor of the raspberries, which I felt would be hidden under the quantity of sugar in the original recipe.

Finally, I tried to make the recipe a little more user-friendly. Instead of relying solely on fresh raspberries, which can be hard to find, are highly perishable, and tend to be on the expensive side, I give you the option of using frozen raspberries. I also figured out a way to make both the crust and the raspberry puree without the use of a food processor in case you don’t have one or you don’t want to be bothered with washing it afterwards.

The result is a delicious recipe that you and your family can enjoy all year long, regardless of the fickleness of the weather or the season you’re in.