Carrot & Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I've been blogging for over 4 years now and the whole experience never fails to surprise me.  

In less than 5 days, my post last week, Parmesan Chicken Bake became the most viewed recipe of all my 240 posts spanning 51 months.  I completely have Pinterest to thank, but it is still so mind-boggling to me how one simple post can take my blog to where I never thought possible.  

I guess I should work on more chicken recipes :)

With my garden beginning it's annual boom of goodies, I couldn't wait to try these bars.  I am in love with all baked goods with carrots or zucchini.  They are always so moist which makes it hard to step away from them.  The lemon cream cheese frosting just puts these over the top!

These gems whipped together extremely quickly, and I didn't even use a single appliance to make them.  A quick grate on the box grater instead of the KitchenAid and I mixed everything together in a bowl, even the frosting.

Carrot and Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
makes 16 bars - 20 bars 
(recipe adapted from realmomkitchen.com)
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

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.