In his case the colloquialism must be taken literally; he really was thinking about breakfast, as he thought about every conscious act of his life when time allowed deliberation.
"The Woman in Black"
Edmund Clerihew Bentley
The term Francie used was a colloquialism generally associated with levity, but her face, as she spoke, was none the less deeply serious-serious even to pain.
"The Reverberator"
Henry James
Get yourself into the current of Circumstance-"in the swim," as the colloquialism has it.
"The Young Man and the World"
Albert J. Beveridge