Sometimes I just cook barley with a smaller bit of water first then after it is a little soft -15 minutes or so, I add milk and apples and walnuts and cinnamon/nutmeg. That is tasty.

Tonight I had a lot of overripe bananas so it was 1/2 c (cooked first in 1 1/4 c water) barley, 2C milk then added to the barley and cooked longer until barley was softer (I used a mix of kefir, cream and milk because it is what I had on hand). In another pan I mixed 4 overripe bananas, 1/4 c brown sugar (the bananas were quite sweet), vanilla, cinnamon, a little clove and nutmeg, 2 eggs and another cup of the milk mixture (cream would have been perfect if you use dairy). Then mix the barley mix into the spice egg mix and put it in custard cups, add water to the pan holding the custard cups and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes or so.