MANILA, Philippines - Despite her hectic schedule, Sharon Cuneta clearly prioritizes her family. She never fails to bond with her children KC, Frankie and Miel and impart the following lessons.

1. Healthy bodies. Though it seems like her kids can eat anything they want, Sharon?s actually strict about their diets. Her daughters, for example, do not drink soft drinks.

2. Healthy minds. No Playstation at this household. Instead, Sharon and her daughters are into activities that use paper, scissors and pen. She taught her kids to make lanterns and fans out of paper, and is looking for simple origami designs to introduce. ?Frankie also made a cute drawing which I had made into cards,? says the supportive mom. Meanwhile, TV is off limits to the kids on weekdays, and when they do watch, Playhouse Disney is the only channel allowed. As for the iPod, Sharon considers it ?a great invention? as it keeps Frankie and Miel entertained during long flights. ?I download them with kid movies like ?High School Musical,?? says Sharon. ?And lately, I?ve downloaded some of my own songs and KC?s songs into their iPods.?

3. Healthy attitude. Thanks to Sharon?s solid upbringing, her daughters are already aware of the value of money and hard work. At a toy store, they can only shop for a certain number of things, unless their mom allows them to get more. And when Frankie wanted an electric guitar, she had to ?work? for it by selling lemonade to their drivers and turon at the Senate. (Her senator-dad would later match her earnings.) ?My dad was like that,? says Sharon. ?He knew when to hold back and when to give.?

Favorite soup
With an enduring career and stable family life, Sharon?s latest blessing is her favorite noodle soup now made with natural preservatives

If she weren?t on the Three-Day Diet, a modest regimen of whole wheat crackers, cottage cheese and broccoli in preparation for her 30th-anniversary concert on Aug. 8 at the Araneta Coliseum, Sharon swears she could eat anything. ?My daughter Miel is like me,? she tells press people jokingly. ?Basta hindi human at hindi pet, papatulan namin yan!?

Save for certain types of meat (horse, goat, rabbit, dog, rat) and being vegetarian (?Hindi ko kaya! Mamamatay ako!?), every dish is fair game to the Megastar who gets her love of food from her father, the late Pasay City mayor Pablo Cuneta. ?He was a gourmand one day and a jologs the next,? says the daughter of the man who not only alternated going to the market with his wife, but was a meticulous cook and master of Pinoy cuisine. ?One day we?d have sukiyaki and kamameshi, the next day, we?d have hito and buro.?

Dining as family

Like the Cunetas, who always ate their meals together in a dinette in the master bedroom, Sharon and her husband Sen. Kiko Pangilinan insist on dining as a family. Meals always begin with grace (said by Kiko, Frankie or Miel) and are usually fun and colorful. When they?re in their Laguna home, the senator likes to spread banana leaves on a table facing the pool so they can eat meals made out of veggies harvested from their own backyard. At night, the kids (occasionally along with the children of in-laws Anthony and Maricel Pangilinan), will sleep in a tent pitched in the yard, then wake up to cook breakfast using camping tools the senator bought in his last US trip. ?The kids enjoy it so much in Laguna,? says Sharon, ?they?ve been lobbying for us to live there!?

Like TV, movies, a recording studio and a concert stage, the kitchen is Sharon?s milieu. A trained baker (she took formal lessons from Sylvia Reynoso Galang and Jill Sandique), she can whip up a variety of sinful desserts (and in fact baked seven in one day when she was pregnant). Her piece de resistance, however, appears to be her carrot cake. It was the cake her husband ordered to give his fellow senators one Christmas, and the cake requested by TV hosts Boy Abunda and Kris Aquino. ?Sometimes people ask for my cake without knowing that it?s me who baked it,? she says. ?Once, when I was in Dubai for a concert, my assistant got a call from someone who was ordering my carrot cake. My assistant said, ?Ma?am, nasa Middle East po yung nag-bake ng cake!? Incidentally, both her young daughters are bakers like mom: Frankie makes the softest doughnuts, which she learned from her yaya whose family made doughnuts; Miel, meanwhile, has just finished baking her first cupcakes.

As for main courses, the Pangilinans have their own specialties. KC, a pesco-vegetarian, cooks a mean lamb, while Kiko, says his wife, ?makes a good sandwich! It?s got liver spread, fried garlic, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and other meats, and it?s so yummy!?

Amazingly, the Megastar boasts a mega-repertoire of recipes and dishes up her sleeve. More a fish person, her husband likes her inihaw na pla-pla and her pritong tilapia, while her brother pronounces her slow-cooked roast turkey with all the stuffing and sidings ?the best.? ?I also make very good pasta, if I may say so,? offers Sharon, who likes tweaking recipes to make them her own. ?My kids love my carbonara.?

Noodle person
Sharon herself is a noodle person (?My downfall,? she laments, ?is bread and pasta?), which explains her insatiable appetite for Lucky Me! In addition to coming up with tasty new variants, Lucky Me! now makes its flavorful instant mami with No Artificial Preservatives Added (Napa). Instead, the instant-noodle brand makes use of 100-percent natural preservatives, specifically mixed tocopherols, antioxidants produced by plants and present in vegetable oils used in the food we eat. Rich in Vitamin E, tocopherols are sourced from nuts, cereals, soybeans and grape seeds, and are the most internationally accepted natural preservatives for instant noodles.

?The reason we accepted the first offer, when it was still without the Napa, was because all the preservatives we saw were within the Recommended Daily Allowance,? explains Sharon. ?So you could imagine my happiness when I was offered this new campaign with Napa. Considering how high prices of commodities have become, this is a little luxury we can?t deprive ourselves of?especially those who can?t have flavorful and freshly cooked food everyday.?

As such, treating her brood to their favorite Lucky Me! (for the senator, it?s the spicy Tom Yum, while for the Megastar and her girls, it?s Bulalo) isn?t just a chance for the family to bond over a hot bowl of mami; for Sharon Cuneta, it?s a welcome relief. ?There?s peace of mind,? she says, ?every time I serve them.?