The present work examines the possibility to use homemade miniature infrared (IR) sources in spectroscopic applications. Simple useful IR applications were studied using IR sources made from in-expensive available materials. Different liquids absorptions of broadband IR radiation were compared. The effect of frying time on vegetable oil changing properties is one of the applications described. Olive oil adulteration with in-expensive vegetable oils such as corn oil was studied as a useful simple to perform test. Industrially, the dependence of color dyes concentration on IR absorption was also studied. These applications are discussed in view that further improvement on such experiments could lead to the construction of a portable handy useful testing system.