Not only is breakfast the most important meal of the day, but it’s also the best meal of the day, no argument. Eggs benedict, home fries, french toast?! Can’t beat it. And even though breakfast for dinner is becoming more and more trendy, breakfast foods are pretty much delegated just to the morning hours.
Of course, the exceptions: Brunch, of course; waking up at noon after a night out and feeling like you can’t go on without a bagel breakfast sandwich; and restaurants that are doing the Lord’s work and serve breakfast all day -- who are you to not order a stack of pancakes in the middle of the day when the option presents itself? Also, cereal is good any time of day, that’s just science.
That being said, I still wither at the thought of drinking orange juice with my pasta dinner or including a side of hashbrowns with my salad.
Back in the colonial era, one hot meal was eaten per day, around midday. It was the only time people could afford to step away from work on the farm. If they did eat around breakfast or dinnertime, it was more a glorified snack made up of whatever leftovers were hanging around the home. You simply ate to refuel in order to get back to work. After the Industrial Revolution, though, work schedules changed and people stopped coming home in the middle of the day. At this point, sit-down, family dinners became more common at the end of the day when everyone came home from work, and the food would be hearty to fill up after a long day at the factory.
Lunch became a thing when these workers started bringing food to work as a pick-me-up in the middle of the day. And what’s easy to transport, no utensils necessary? Sandwiches! Hence the PB&J’s lunchtime popularity.
During this time, the foods that people were eating were great for a farmer’s lifestyle, but not for factory workers standing at assembly lines. They needed to replace the leftovers they were eating in the morning with something lighter to ease indigestion and dyspepsia. As they were looking for healthier options, it was discovered that orange juice and milk were packed with vitamins, so they were added to the morning rotations.
The practice makes sense -- you don't want heavy food in your belly sitting there while you're sedentary at an office desk -- but eat those pancakes for dinner!