Worth looking at Mikroelectonika too http://www.mikroe.com/

I used to spend half my time breadboarding stuff and fiddling with wiring, now I just flick the switches on the development board to get hardware I'm interested in 'wired' up.
USB to PC for programming, debugging, ICD. A decent collection of on-board IO (leds, switches, 7 segment, GLCD, LCD, RS232, USB, PS2 etc) along with all ports brought out to headers and a collection of cheap IO boards that will connect to the headers (or make your own) all the way up to GPS, LAN, CAN etc etc.

They also have a range of compilers in various languages which all provide nice little libraries to use the peripherals making one's life very easy.
(If your projects are small then you can use the compilers in 'lite' mode for free). Want your stepper controller to have it's own web page on your network? (And who wouldn't ) it's no problem...

Once your device is working as you expect simply copy the circuit for the peripherals you use into the final design (circuit diagrams are provided for all their peripherals).

I have of course no connection with the company, but having used PICs for a long time and in a lot of ways I've simply found their products to be top notch and saved me much time and effort.