I did something pretty healthy Monday morning. After I went for a run (they're getting shorter, though I'm trying to build up some stamina...but that's a story for another day), I had a shake for breakfast.

I've thought about having shakes for a long time, but I knew I needed to set aside the proper time to think about it, execute it, and then decide whether it was filling enough.

That couldn't be a school day.

So Monday - a day off - was the perfect day to give it a shot.

My wife's been doing these lately, so she guided me through the process:

-one yogurt

-some frozen strawberries (we had some fresh ones, but she encouraged me to use the frozen ones to make it taste a little colder)

-a banana (we had an old one that was turning brown and mushy sitting around that was one impetus for me to make a shake - I figured I could just throw it into the blender)

-a little bit of milk

-one scoop of protein powder

I should say, I've come to appreciate the value of a good breakfast in the past couple of years. (Forgive me if I'm repeating myself - I feel like I must have written about this before. But maybe not.) For a variety of reasons, my lunch period at school isn't until 1:15pm. We know it's late - we always tell the students they need to eat a good breakfast to help them get through the day.

But I never used to follow my own advice. I had to hit the road in the morning and I didn't take the time to fix myself something healthy.

The past couple of years, though, I've driven to school with my daughter - and that forces me to leave later, and that forces me to eat breakfast before we leave. So for two years I've been eating a good breakfast every morning consisting of eggs and English muffins. (OK, sometimes I'll still hit Dunkin' Donuts on the way in - but far, far less frequently than I used to.)

So I recognize the importance of the protein in the eggs helping me make it through a long day. I no longer feel starved between 11am and noon - I actually make it through 1pm (with the snack provided by the school in late morning). And if I don't have my good breakfast, I get a headache mid-day that I just can't shake.

So all this is to say I know the difference between a good breakfast and a bad breakfast. And this shake was pretty good.

It was my wife who suggested the protein scoop - and I bought in 100% because of my eggs experience. (See how I resisted writing eggs-perience there? I'm maturing.)

Bonus great thing about the shake? Well, besides the cool blending of all of the ingredients? The souvenir cups I collect from my ballpark visits are the perfect size for what comes out of the blender. I used my Nationals Park one for this test run.

There were a couple of things my wife suggested that I didn't include: one was some chia seeds. My wife uses those...I might include them next time, but I wanted to keep things simple this time around. She claims they add some protein and fat too. Same with the frozen blueberries and raspberries - I only had strawberries in my mind this time, so that's what I did.

But there will be other opportunities for other ingredients, because this will be something I do again.

It certainly won't replace my eggs as an everyday breakfast...but with summer vacation coming up I can see a breakfast shake coming into play once or twice a week.

(Note: Is this technically a smoothie? Should I have said smoothie instead of shake? Is this a regional thing like frappe and shake? Are those even the same things? I don't remember. I think I'm saying shake because of the old Ultra Slim-Fast commercials. OK. End of note.)