Meal ideas
For meal ideas made by grinding grain, see flour. Still life with fruits, nuts, and large wheels of cheese. A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food.
Although they can be eaten anywhere, meals typically take place in homes, restaurants, and cafeterias. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day. The type of food that is served or consumed at any given time depends on regional customs. Three main meals are often eaten in the morning, early afternoon, and evening in most modern civilizations. Further, the names of meals are often interchangeable by custom as well.
Breakfast is the first meal of a day, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day’s work. Some believe it to be the most important meal of the day. The word breakfast literally refers to breaking the fasting period of the prior night. A full breakfast is a breakfast meal, usually including bacon, sausages, eggs, and a variety of other cooked foods, with hot beverages such as coffee or tea, or cold beverages such as juice or milk. Other regional names and variants include the ‘full Scottish’, ‘full Welsh’, ‘full Irish’ and the ‘Ulster fry’. Instant breakfast” typically refers to breakfast food products that are manufactured in a powdered form, which are generally prepared with the addition of milk and then consumed as a beverage. A champagne breakfast is a breakfast served with champagne or sparkling wine.
It is a new concept in some countries and is not typical of the role of a breakfast. It may be part of any day or outing considered particularly luxurious or indulgent. Refer to this Wikipedia Breakfast page for a list of countries and continents and their variations of breakfast. The cuisine articles linked in the breakfast page regarding each countries and continents cuisine may display variations of breakfast more thoroughly.
Lunch, the abbreviation for luncheon, is a light meal typically eaten at midday. The origin of the words lunch and luncheon relate to a small snack originally eaten at any time of the day or night. During the 20th century the meaning gradually narrowed to a small or mid-sized meal eaten at midday. Another variation of lunch is the meal deal, this is a meal often bought from a store and contains the following: a sandwich or pastry, a bag of chips, salad or fruit and a bottled drink. Dinner usually refers to a significant and important meal of the day, which can be the noon or the evening meal. The evening meal can be called tea when dinner, which is generally the largest of the day, is eaten in the middle of the day.
A full-course dinner is a dinner consisting of multiple dishes, or courses. In its simplest, English-based form, it can consist of three to five courses, such as appetizers, fish course, entrée, main course and dessert. The traditional courses and their order vary by culture. Many traditions conclude a formal meal with coffee, often accompanied with spirits, either separate or mixed in the coffee. Meal preparation, sometimes called “meal prep,” is the process of planning and preparing meals.
It generally involves food preparation, including cooking. Preparing food for eating generally requires selection, measurement and combination of ingredients in an ordered procedure so as to achieve desired results. Food preparation includes but is not limited to cooking. Cooking or cookery is the art, technology and craft of preparing food for consumption with the use of heat. Breakfast before the 1800s was usually just toast or some variation of gruel or porridge and the main meal was dinner.
