Best way to substitute variables in plain text using PHP

// -- myFile.txt --
Mary had a little $pet.

// -- parser.php --
$pet = "lamb";
// open myFile.txt and transform it such that...
$newContents = "Mary had a little lamb.";

$allVars = get_defined_vars();
echo $pet;             // "lamb"
echo $allVars['pet'];  // "lamb"

$text = 'this is a $test'; // single quotes to simulate getting it from a file
$test = 'banana';
$text = eval('return "' . addslashes($text) . '";');
echo $text; // this is a banana

$w+

$allVars = get_defined_vars();
$file = file_get_contents('myFile.txt');

// unsure if you have to use single or double backslashes here for PHP to understand
preg_replace_callback ("$w+", "find_replacements", $file);

// replace callback function
function find_replacements($match)
{
  global $allVars;
  if (array_key_exists($match[0], $allVars)
    return $allVars[$match[0]];
  else
    return $match[0];
}

$allVars = get_defined_vars();
$file = file_get_contents('myFile.txt');

foreach ($allVars as $var => $val) {
    $file = preg_replace("@\$" . $var . "([^a-zA-Z_0-9x7f-xff]|$)@", $val . "\1", $file);
}

// -- myFile.txt --
Mary had a little %pet%.

// -- parser.php --
$pet = "lamb";
$fileName = myFile.txt

$currentContents = file_get_contents($fileName);

$newContents = str_replace('%pet%', $pet, $currentContents);

// $newContents == 'Mary had a little lamb.'

//myFile.txt
Mary had a little <?= $pet ?>.

//parser.php

$pet = "lamb";
ob_start();
include("myFile.txt");
$contents = ob_end_clean();

echo $contents;

Mary had a little lamb.

$text = file_get_contents('/path/to/myFile.txt'); // "Mary had a little $pet."
$allVars = get_defined_vars(); // array('pet' => 'lamb');
$translate = array();

foreach ($allVars as $key => $value) {
    $translate['$' . $key] = $value; // prepend '$' to vars to match text
}

// translate is now array('$pet' => 'lamb');

$text = strtr($text, $translate);

echo $text; // "Mary had a little lamb."