Carrot Cake Bars a Success!

I finally made some carrot cake bars from a Cooking Light recipe that I've been meaning to get to for a couple of years now (I have a lot of recipes.) The recipe is very easy to make and they come out very tasty. No cream cheese frosting, but if you really can't enjoy the full carrot cake experience without it, take some cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract, mix it with some powdered sugar, and mix until it's nice and blendy. Refrigerate it for about 10 minutes until it's at a nice spreading consistency and then knock yourself out.

Here's the carrot cake recipe (makes about 12 servings):

Ingredients:
* 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons stick margarine or butter, softened
* 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 large egg whites
* 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
* 1 1/2 cups regular oats
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup shredded carrot
* 1/2 cup raisins
* Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat sugar and margarine at medium speed of a mixer (note: I used a hand mixer; you don't need to chuck the recipe if you don't have a KitchenAid) until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add buttermilk, vanilla, and egg whites; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through salt); gradually add to sugar mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in carrot and raisins.

Pour batter into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 33 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 12 equal squares and enjoy!

Weight Watcher fans, this should be about 2-3 points per bar. Enjoy.

NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 121(17% from fat); FAT 2.3g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 3.1g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 68mg; SODIUM 138mg; FIBER 2g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 23.3g