Carrot and Zucchini Bars

If you need to hide your vegetables to eat them, here is your recipe! I love my veggies, however, my husband will not eat anything green .. no matter what. This is such a delicious (albeit not the healthiest) way to get your vegetables in and dessert. I have always had a huge crush on carrot cake; I even insisted that I get a side sheet cake at my wedding just so I could have carrot cake. This is also a great recipe for carrot cake if you wanted to experiment around with it. The cream cheese frosting was the perfect amount of sweetness to top off the bars, too. I probably will make 1.5x the batch next time because I have a huge sweet tooth. The recipe below is the original amount.

Carrot and Zucchini Bars

Adapted from: New Cookbook, Bridal Edition (Better Homes & Garden)

For the bars:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1.5 cups shredded carrot

1 cup shredded zucchini

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup dry cranberries (or raisins)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup cooking oil (I used canola)

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

For the frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, ginger and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients (for the bars) until well blended. Pour that mixture into the large mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Spread batter evenly into an ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool bars in the pan on top of a cooling rack.

While bars are cooking, mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together in a stand mixer on medium speed with the wire whip attachment. Whip frosting until fluffy and add the lemon zest. Mix batter for another minute and spread over cooled bars. Cut into bars and serve!