If you had a naked portafilter it would help you a lot as your problem may be channeling with early blonding. Once you ensure your puck doesn't channel, then you can tune your shot by taste/time/weight/volume/etc.

Matt_F wrote:1. Weigh 16g beans
2. Add to empty grinder, grind
3. Adjust grind until I get approx 2oz in approx 25 - 30 sec extraction
4. If I get early blonding grind finer
5. If I still get early blonding increase dose
6. Fine tune by tasting

Is this procedure ok?

this is spot on. also, seconded regarding the naked portafilter, or if you don't want to spring for a nekkid pf at this moment, just do weiss distribution technique on every shot. pretty foolproof.
also, play around with your dose to find what taste you like.

I think there are a few problems here.
One, a single espresso (assuming it's ~1oz), will get lost in 7oz of milk easily. I think that was already covered.

Now, even though Varios supposedly come out calibrated from the factory, it wasn't the case with mine. I would pull a shot with 1-B grind and naked portafilter would spray coffee around (meaning it wasn't nearly fine enough). I took the tool and calibrated it. If you don't choke your machine with a fine setting, you need readjustment.