Make A Meal Of Meaning

(idiomatic, transitive) To spend more time and energy on some task than it warrants; to make something overly complicated.

Example: 1997, Alison Aprhys, Careers in Publishing and Bookselling: How to Get the Job You Want,[1] Hale & Iremonger, ISBN 9780868066363, page 191:
  Some people can make a meal out of the simplest task. If you give it to a busy person, they don’t have time to muck around on the edges and worry about it — they’ll just do it.
a. 2004, Kate Williams, Using Information for Decision Making, Second Edition, Elsevier (2004), ISBN 978-0-7506-6427-1, page 53:
  They both looked good – I would have been happy with either version. There was no point in making a meal of the decision, so I just picked up the one which was nearest to me on the desk and said, ‘We’ll go with this one.’
2008, Julia Gregson, East of the Sun, Simon and Schuster (2009), ISBN 978-1-4391-0112-4:
  page 131: And if he preferred Viva, fine. She wasn't going to make a meal of it or even give them the satisfaction of a scene.
  page 524: Make it quick and painless, she'd told herself, don't make a meal of it.
2010‎ November 3, Andrew Barker, “Morning Glory (review)”, Variety:
  Ford's character is a bit one-note, and his gravelly intonation suggests a drunken poet more than a respected newsman, yet he makes a meal of the role all the same, and his pronunciation of the word "frittata" may well be the film's high point.
To eat something as a meal.
  Don't walk near the tiger: it'll make a meal of you.