OK - I really am not trying to be rude, but ...
Replication is just replication - it is not recovery, so as with any replication technology there is no "best practice" for how to do manual recovery from a replicated dataset.
As for whether yours is a simple environment - well yes, really I think that SRM (especially when paired with vSphere replication) is a very affordable technology that scales to small environments perfectly. I have worked with several "small simple" companies who want to protect a few key assets and be able to demonstrate recovery capabilities.
I understand if you do not want it, I guess ... but having said that the "best practices" will be defined by the run-book that you develop.
Sorry I could not be more help - perhaps others have tried doing what you want to do?