Fruited Breakfast Barley

We all need to be eating more whole grains and what better way to sneak them in than breakfast?

I love barley in it's usual place; soup. But I thought it would do a stand up job as a replacement to oatmeal. My mom, who I cook for, loves fruit in the morning and is a big fan of overnight oatmeal but I get kind of sick of it.

This barley breakfast bake is similar but much more toothsome and very delicious.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of barley cooked according to package directions; drained
• 2-3 apples diced. I used cameo.
• 10 oz of Craisins
• 1 cup (or more) blueberries
• 2 cups of milk. I used whole milk.
• 1 cup toasted pecans
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine all ingredients except apples into the pot the barley was cooked in. Stir well.
3. Pour mixture into  9x13 casserole dish
4. Top with diced apples.
5. Heat in oven for 30 minutes or until apples are soft.

This made roughly 12 one cup servings. I enjoyed one serving and then put the rest in individual containers for breakfast this week in the freezer. It heat up perfectly and made a lovely warm winter breakfast.