About a year after cooking bacon with an AR-15, Sen. Ted Cruz is admitting to being a corrupting influence on his two daughters when it comes to pork.

“Heidi and I have kind of a tug of war with our girls. She tries to raise them vegetarian, and I play the role of temptation. And I will say there is no powerful thing — no more powerful thing for corrupting young, mom-wants-to-be-vegetarians than the power of bacon,” Cruz said Wednesday.

The former presidential candidate called his wife Heidi a “California vegetarian” when speaking at a San Antonio Chamber of Commerce event, part of a tour of his home state of Texas over August recess.

Last year’s “machine gun bacon” stunt that Cruz did with IJReview came during one of his many trips to Iowa as part of his presidential campaign.

The quip about literal pork (not the federal spending kind) came as he was espousing the virtues of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, a familiar theme during his unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination.

“The 10th amendment means that the people of Texas don’t have to decide the same thing as the people of California, thank God,” Cruz said. “If it were otherwise, we would all be having tofu breakfast this morning.”

“We coulda used more bacon, by the way,” Cruz said of the meal offered at the event. “Always adding bacon is a good idea.”

“My oldest daughter Caroline, the first time I gave her bacon she was like, ‘oh my — what is this stuff?’ Cruz said of her reaction.

No word on whether Cruz and his daughters ever consumed the famous Mug o’ Bacon during one of his many visits to New Hampshire ahead of that state’s presidential primary.

Contact Lesniewski at NielsLesniewski@cqrollcall.com and follow him on Twitter @nielslesniewski.