make a meal from something—prepare a meal using certain ingredients:
- The men made a meal from bread and the meat that had been cooked the night before.
make a meal of something—
1. create a meal of smth., especially with the implication that one wouldn’t expect it to be a complete or regular meal:
- You can make a meal of salad on days when you want to keep your diet light.
2. (coll.) exaggerate the importance of an event or situation:
- Predictably, anti-biotech groups have made a meal of this mishap, blaming inadequate government regulation.
3. (coll.) put more time and effort into smth. than it really needs:
- John really made a meal of sorting out his desk. It took him all day…