Who has time to cook?  With our hectic daily schedules, not to mention our online and offline social lives, enjoying home-cooked meals have become as challenging as asking your boss for that overdue raise.

Preparing your own meals can be quite time consuming and if you aren’t really much of a cook, the risk of preparing something that will just end up as leftovers is sometimes simply not worth the effort.

Not for Amy Perez, though, even if he host/actress is running a household full-time and maintaining a busy career has become seems ordinary.

The 45-year-old mother of three Adi (17), Kyle (6), and Isaiah (2) says she loves to cook for her boys (as well as her husband, Carlo Castillo), and experimenting is just one way to keep things her dishes “new.”

“I enjoy and I love cooking for my boys,” Perez told media at the recent Clara Ole Potluck Foodfest launch held April 10 at R Space in Makati.

Hosted by radio DJ Gelli Victor, the event was a food-filled afternoon that allowed guests to sample different dishes made with Clara Ole. More than just pasta sauces, Clara Ole also offered other delicious and healthy dishes made with their products such as dips n’ dressings, vinaigrettes, and marinades. For dessert, guests satisfied their sweet tooth with treats made with their syrups, jams, and jellies. 

“As a mom, I’m very pressured everyday to come up with something unique and at the same time tasty. Especially now that they’re on vacation, andun yung pressure to come up with a very special dish everyday for lunch and dinner.

TV host Amy Perez shows off her kitchen savvy in

a cooking demonstration for Clara Ole, the food

product she is currently endorsing

“Every Sunday I sit down in the kitchen and check with my family kung ano yung niluto ko last week so I could change it for the coming week. Siyempre nasanay tayo na kapag Friday monggo di ba? And every Saturday and Sunday either sinigang or nilaga. So what I do is I experiment a lot. When I open my pantry, I try to use whatever I see there, like those leftovers.”

Amy attributes her kitchen savvy to a couple of things—taking a basic culinary course at International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM) and her not so secret cooking companion Clara Ole.

“I took up a basic culinary course in ISCAHM, for about three months because I’m always pressured to come up with something, and even before, I’m a regular user of Clara Ole. Why? Because it’s very easy, to use and they also have small packages so you can try a new dish in small servings first.

Amy then demonstrated how she cooks their favorite pasta quickly and easily with the help of Clara Ole.

It took her less than 10 minutes to prepare the dish she called Castillo Fave, using olive oil, left-over sausages, shitaake mushrooms, pasta and Clara Ole Cheesy Pesto Pasta Sauce.

 “The Potluck Foodfest will be a series of eight themed potluck mini parties at condo residences. Beginning April 25, Clara Ole will be going around different condos of different personalities, who will then invite their neighbors, family, and friends to share their own signature dish using Clara Ole. Aside from recipes, they will get to share time and space-saving tips, hacks and helpful information to make fast-paced living a little bit easier, shared Sandy Cu, Sysu International Product and Business Development Director.

Beginning April 25, Clara Ole will be sponsoring the party of eight personalities who will then invite their neighbors, family, and friends to share their own signature dish using the products. The objective of these mini-potluck parties is to be able to share some time and space-saving tips, hacks, easy recipes and helpful information to make fast-paced living a little bit easier especially to those who live in condominiums and have small cooking spaces.

Each of the eight mini-potluck parties will have a specific theme such as Manny Pacquiao-inspired game night; Summer or Nautical Theme; Children’s Theme; Birthday Party Theme; Singles’ Night; Movie Night; Entertaining a Balikbayan and YOLO Night

Amy Perez will also be hosting her own mini potluck party where she will invite her family and friends to share easy recipes and convenient tips and hacks just like what she did at the event.

For more exciting news on what else Clara Ole has in store for everyone, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MyClaraOle and follow their Instagram and Pinterest accounts @ClaraOlePH.