roll your own templater?

template.html

<div class="entry columns $col_classes bN" data-beacon="{'p':{'mpid':'$i'}}">
  <div class="panel">
    <a href="clickable" href="$entry_path"></a>
    <div class="bN $img_size-img" data-beacon="{'p':{'lnid':'img'}}">
      <div class="image-container" data-img-path="$img_path"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-text">
      <h5 class="cf bN" data-beacon="{'p':{'lnid':'hldn'}}">$headline</h5>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<!--
var templ = Template(thatbloboftextupthere);
var output = templ({
  i: i,
  col_classes: "small-6" || "small-12 large-6",
  entry_path: "/us/entry/whatever",
  img_size: "large" || "small",
  img_path: "http://s.huffingtonpost.com/whatever",
  headline: "Barry Odertsky's Empassioned Speech on Accounting Practices"
});
-->

template.js

(function() {
  function warn(str, key) {
    console.warn("Template \""+str.substr(0, 20)+"...\" rendered with missing key: "+key);
  }

  function exec(str, params) {
    params || (params = {});
    return str.replace(/\$(\w+)/g, function(match, key) {
      if (params[key] === undefined) { warn(str, key); }
      return params[key];
    });
  }

  function make(str) {
    var trimmed = str.replace(/\s*?\n\s*/gm, ""); // Compress whitespace
    return function(params) {
      return exec(trimmed, params);
    }
  }

  window.Template = make;
})()

(function() {
  function warn(str, key) {
    console.warn("Template \""+str.substr(0, 20)+"...\" rendered with missing key: "+key);
  }

  function exec(str, params) {
    params || (params = {});
    var re;
    for(var key in params) {
      re = new RegExp(key, 'g');
      str.replace(re, params[key]);
    }
    return str.replace(/\$(\w+)/g, function(match, key) {
      if (params[key] === undefined) { warn(str, key); }
      return params[key];
    });
  }

  function make(str) {
    var trimmed = str.replace(/\s*?\n\s*/gm, ""); // Compress whitespace
    return function(params) {
      return exec(trimmed, params);
    }
  }

  window.Template = make;
})()