Super Beginner Electronics Project Help

Hey Circuit Digest,

I am currently gearing up to transfer to a new college where I will be studying electrical engineering (sophomore level), and as such I would like to try a basic electronics project to get my feet wet in the subject.  My family and I have been having coordination issues where sometimes the dogs will be fed twice for a meal.  And while they don't seem to mind, they have been getting larger than usually even with regular exercise.  To solve this problem, I was thinking of using a teensy with an LCD display and then 3D printing a casing for it.  The LCD would display each of the dogs' names and then buttons on the side would register whether either dog has been fed or not.  (One of our dogs HAS to have cat food infused in his food otherwise he will wait to eat.  My dad refuses to indulge in this and as such, this particular dog will wait until someone else prepares his meal.  Because of this, there needs to be two buttons for each dog.)   This will need some sort of internal clock to reset the feed times at an hour before their feeding times.  Ideally, I was hoping this could be battery powered so I could mount it above one of their food bowls.  So with this in mind, I had some questions.  

-What would your thought process be like in designing something like this?  

-Could a configuration as I've described work? 

-How would you determine whether a battery vs. connecting a cord would work better?  

Thanks for all of your help.  

-Professor Sandwich