"like preparation" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to emphasize the importance of taking the necessary steps to complete a task successfully. For example, "Getting ready for a job interview requires like preparation and practice".
"I don't like preparation, even in my TV work," he said.
"This is like preparation for the Christmas period," he said.
To experience some brief form of disappearance can feel like preparation for the permanent vanishing we'll all have".
As we speak, the Marines and the Air Force are bombing Falluja in what looks like preparation for an assault.
These slick women's bibles make the pursuit of beauty seem like preparation for med school, with each woman as her own experimental subject.
The program also helps participants, many of whom left school before graduation, with job-readiness training and educational services like preparation for the high school equivalency diploma test.
The choices were extensive, and we settled on arroz con calamares, a fried-rice-like preparation that contained bits of squid and pork.
Green or green-yellow, they're good grated and are excellent substitutes for potatoes in a rösti-like preparation or in little latke-like pancakes.
It was his seventh year taking part in the Epiphany ritual: the trance-like preparation, the electric shock of the water and the 20- or 30-second wait for a feeling he described as "nirvana".
The only non-kebab main courses were the specials and they were good: white beans and pastrami in a cassoulet-like preparation with a thyme-touched sauce one night, tasty meatballs another and, at the top of the list, a stewy eggplant and lamb.
What a pleasure it is to stop at Bar Pinotxo, Stand 66-67 near the entry to the market, for a pick-me-up of the house cava, a bracing sparkling wine, or a plate of gorgeous mushrooms, simply pan-fried, or a tortilla, a frittata-like preparation of garlic and onions just bound with egg.
