Oops, the images did not appear fine. Posting them again.

Are you going to have a light rail under your upper cabinets? I don't see one in your pic. If not, then you should go with LED light bars which are very thin and low profile. If you will have a light rail, there are several alternatives: LED's, xenons or micro-fluorescents. I do not recommend halogen whatsoever. I also don't like pucks because they reflect circles of light onto your counter rather than the more even lighting of strips.

I will link a thread that might help you. Since that thread was posted, people have reported on this forum that LED strips found at Ikea and Lowe's are reasonably priced (LED's used to be very expensive).

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread Called What Type of UCLs?

As far as power goes, if you slide your microwave out, you may find a standard outlet with just the microwave plugged in. Perhaps the lights could be plugged in there. THere are touch-sensitive switches that can be mounted out of sight under the edge of the cabinet uppers.
We used LED rope lights from Home Depot, and ran them underneath and also above the cabinets. Only problem we have had over the years is that the plastic clips that hold them up have degraded (too much light?) and fallen apart, so they sag here and there.

Your posts suggests that there are only 2 options - puck lights or having lights hardwired. Not true. We just installed after market UCL using LED bars. We have an OTR microwave with a cabinet above it, which has an outlet inside. We have lights on both sides of the microwave, so 2 legs running to the power supply that's in the cabinet. The light bars are mounted directly behind the lip on the front of the cabinets, and you cannot see them. We had to drill holes in the "bridges" between the cabinets and run wire thru to connect from cabinet-cabinet. then a hole drilled up thru the bottom of the cabinet and out the side to run the wire up to the power supply and again to get over the sink (the wire there is hid by the wood valance over the sink) Used inline dimmers that you touch to power on/off and hold to dim. We got our lights thru environmentallights.com. Quality lights, good customer service, knowledgeable reps.

Here are a couple pics but the lights are NOT that blue IRL! they are a nice white light. Our backsplash is white, but other walls are bluish so maybe some reflection??

Here is a link that might be useful: LED light bars

Thanks all for your responses and the links. mountaineergirl, I listed those 2 options as they were the ones I came across in tsome popular web sites (HGTV etc). I did learn abt LED after my post. Thanks for correcting me and the pictures.
Will use the microwave power source but my only concern is how to get the cables past the hood. I either have to fish it behind the drywall so that it isn't visible or find some other option.
Also, would you all recommend running a separate cable for the lights that will go on the cabinets above the sink or can they all be part of the single run?

Oh yes the hood will be a problem. Not the sink. Above the sink, you would treat those cabinets the same - maybe run 2 bars in parallel if you want it brighter than the rest. Just run the wire up thru the cabinet on the side, then thru a hole drilled in the side of the cabinet and just under the over-the-sink cab, then thru the side of the cab on the other side of the sink and back down. Don't know if I'm making sense.Is there trim or a lip on the front edge of the cabinets? Make sure the hole is drilled high enough under it so it won't be seen. When I get time, I will post pics of the holes we drilled. The width of the interconnect parts are .4" so we used a 5/16 drill bit.

As far as the hood, I think you'd be better off finding a place to put the power supply on that side of the kitchen. You'd have to buy 2 power supplies but neither one would have to be very big. Maybe the 48-watt one. (I bought a 150-watt one which was overkill)

These were pretty easy to install. My DH drilled the necessary holes but I mounted the brackets/bars, ran the low-voltage wire myself.

Thanks mountaineergirl. Appreciate all the information. Please do post pictures when you get some time. That would really help for a novice DIYer like me.
I kind of understand your explanation for the sink. And you were right about the cabinets on the other side of the hood. Will figure out a way to get to a power source for that.
I did see an outlet inside the cabinet over the microwave to which the microwave is plugged into. Can I just mount a power strip and connect the microwave and the ULC to it? I am not sure if that is allowed and not a violation of the county code. (wonder if the appliance outlet cannot be used for this!).

alwaysfixin,
The thread link gave me a lot of ideas.
I am not planning to use light rails under the cabinet. I did look at the JUNO xenon lights and they are really good. Correct me if I am wrong, looks like those do not need a rail either. And since they have integrated trnasformers, I can simply plug them to a power source right?
I am Still debating if I need to stick with the LED or the Xenons. www.superbrightleds.com and environmentallights.com have LED strips at great prices.

Thanks
TSR

Ok, about the power strip, if there is one available outlet you don't need a power strip. You can plug more than one run (or "leg"?) into one power supply. So, I assume your receptacle has 2 outlets in it?

pic of hole drilled up into cabinet

pic of wire behind wood valance over sink

light bar

a pic from a good camera (not phone) where lights don't look so blue

this was already on page 5 so thought I'd bump it just in case trsamkumar didn't see last response.

I didn't see Tsramkumar's question until Mountaineergirl's bump. Regarding the Juno Xenon UCL's, I think a light rail would be necessary because they are bulky in comparison to the LED strips. Therefore they will be visible if you don't have a light rail. As I recommended in my earlier post, if you don't have a light rail, then the slimmest LED strips would be a better choice.