Ok this doing my head in a bit.

Meal is short for mealtide, not used in English anymore but is in other Germanic languages. And etymologists seem to be uncertain if the meal part relates to time or milling. But that seems weird to me because then mealtide would literally mean something like times-time.

Edit: the two definitions of meal seem to stem from the same word. Hitting/striking wheat is done in times.

I'll use Dutch to clarify since English doesn't have the time definition anymore.

Ik sla het tarwe niet één maal, niet twee maal maar vijftien maal. I hit the wheat not once, not twice but fifteen times.

Na het enkele malen te slaan konden we het malen in de molen. After hitting it a few times we could mill it in the mill.

En toen hadden we meel. And then we had meal.

I hope that somewhat makes it clear.