Carrot and Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

By dcarriger56

makes 16 bars - 20 bars
(recipe adapted from realmomkitchen.com)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1/4 C honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 C shredded carrot (about 2 large carrots)
• 1 C shredded zucchini (about 2 small zucchinis)
• 1/2 C chopped pecans (optional) **I sprinkled them on top of the frosting instead of adding them to the bars
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Frosting
• 8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 C powdered sugar
• zest of one lemon
• pinch of salt

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, oil, honey and vanilla until smooth. Switch to a rubber spatula and mix in the carrot, zucchini and pecans. Add all the dry ingredients and mix together just until they are incorporated. Pour into your greased pan and bake for 22-25 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
3. Prepare the frosting by beating together all the ingredients until well blended. You can frost the whole pan before cutting to make it easy, but I really like cutting the bars first and individually frosting each bar.