In my current house we were able to match the hardwood from the rest of the house and have it installed in our kitchen (and a few other areas) then had it all stained to match. Prices of course vary, but we bought the wood for $1.99/sq ft (lumber liquidators), had it installed for $.99/sq ft, and had it all refinished (whole house) for $1.99 square foot.

I don't have any pictures of my kitchen without my family in it, but I'll try to take some!

Even worse than off-white ceramic tile is WHITE linoleum and that is what we had in our old kitchen. I am right there with you - I HATED it. It never looked cleaned.

So are you willing to do tile again? We did large porcelain tiles - 24'' x 24'' in a warm, beige with some grey veining. It never "looks" dirty, even if it is. The product we did was Casa Dolce Casa Velvet in Ecru but as far as floor tiles go, it was a little pricey - about $5/sq ft. There are a lots of tiles that are cheaper but don't have as much variation as these. Here are pics (the colors in the first picture are most accurate. In the second two they look more grey and dirty than they do in real life):

Here is a link that might be useful: Casa Dolce Casa Velvet tile

I am also looking at different floor choices. I want to float since I have a slab and am putting wood everywhere else (bedrooms,hall, living room areas). So I am looking for something different for the kitchen and the adjoining front entry. Being on a slab in Michigan, I don't want to go with something as permanent as porcelain tile since if it proves to be too cold, it is tough to get off the slab. This weekend, I looked at Marmoleum, Mannington Adura tile, Armstrong Alterna and Congoleum Duraceramic. The last two don't really float, they are adhered to an underlayment. All were very interesting and had some nice looking options. I like a more modern look and I liked the Vibe line in the Adura but it wasn't available in their floating option. I want to look at Alloc Commercial Stone Laminate. They have some interesting one's I would like to see. I can't seem to find anyone in my area that has a display. I emailed Alloc to see if they can help me find someone.

Right now Marmoleum is my front runner because I think I can do something fun with a couple different colors but I want to see some Alloc before I make my final decision.

Have you considered cork flooring?

We don't have pics of our kitchen yet (awaiting a June demo date), but we were looking for something other than wood (we're going with wood cabinets, and wood floors are already installed in all rooms off of kitchen, and were concerned about the hardness of tile since we cook a lot and are standing in the kitchen for long periods on most weekends.) We looked at Armstrong's new luxury vinyl tile which is very beautiful installed, and comfortable to stand on.
We ended up deciding on a cork floating floor from Wicanders.
http://www.wicanders.com/en/collections/corkcomfort/the-collection/

We read pros/cons but found all of them to be the same as if we had gone forward with hardwoods. They make the cork in various styles (some look like slate, hardwood planks,etc). We ended up with the Symphony color (more of an actual cork look)because the color complements our granite perfectly.

We put cork in our last two kitchens (may be buying again and if it needs a kitchen this will be our third with GW). I loved it and would do it again in a New York minute.

Thanks, all for the great feedback. @NewSouthernBelle -- thank you for the photos! Which material did you use for your counters (just out of curiosity -- caught a glimpse of them in the first pic). I am getting an estimate on hardwoods next week; if that's cost-prohibitive, I will explore some of these other suggestions. Never considered cork before! I like the idea that it's softer (so much standing in the kitchen) and probably warmer -- I live in the Northeast and the kitchen shares a wall with the (unheated) garage, so that ceramic tile can get pretty chilly in the winter.