I did our kitchen with engineered wood. It's basically 3/4" plywood with a 3/16" layer of oak on top. It's a floating floor system. It's pretty easy to put down. If you can run a table saw and a miter box, it will be no problem for you. Just remember to measure twice and cut once.
The stuff I put down is Harris Tarkett. They sell it at Home Depot for roughly $4/sq ft and it doesn't look like photographed wood like the pergos. I've had it in for about three years now, and I have a dog. It gets scratched eventually like all wood floors, but the finish is holding up fantastic.
The other thing you could do is a real wood floor. It's more difficult, and requires sanding and finishing after installation. It will stink for a couple weeks. And the finish isn't as hard as the factory applied and baked stuff. I have that in other portions of my house and would not recommend trying it yourself.
BTW, my kitchen remodel was about 180 sq ft with lots of corners and I put the floor down in about 6 hours. A square area you could do 600 feet in a day no problem. Odd shaped rooms might take the whole weekend, but certainly doable.
More on my kitchen project can be found here:
Kitchen Project