Carrot and Zucchini bars

Summer is here and I'd like to get as much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. The nectarine season is over in our garden but we celebrated our harvest with lots of ripe fruit right off the tree and fresh baked nectarine pies.

I renewed my subscription to the Better Homes and Gardens magazine and I received a couple of wonderful gifts, 2 recipe books. Everything looks so good but I was anxious to try this carrot and zucchini bars recipe so much. The recipe is very simple, nutritious and there is 2 1/2 cups of shredded vegetables in them!

I change a recipe slightly, I used a yellow squash instead of green but the bars turned out just wonderful. So I baked them, let them cool and spread a cream cheese citrus frosting on top.
It's very good, try it!

Here is the recipe:

Carrot and Zucchini Bars

Ingredients for the dough:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups shredded carrot

1 medium zucchini, shredded (1 cup)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for the citrus-cream cheese frosting:

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon or orange peel, finely shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, ginger, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together eggs, carrot, zucchini, brown sugar, raisins, walnuts, oil, honey, and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined.

Spread batter into an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Make citrus-cream cheese frosting: In a medium mixing bowl beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Stir in lemon or orange peel.

Frost cake with citrus-cream cheese frosting and cut into bars.