Laravel 5: creating new models in controllers

What's the correct way to create new models in Laravel 5 controllers? I don't want to use the model class names directly, but instead I insert them into the controller constructor, like this:

public function __construct(User $user) {
    $this->user = $user;
    // ...
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

To work with the user model, I would normally use the controller property, for example:

$target = $this->user
               ->women()
               ->whereBetween('age', [18, 29])
               ->get();

      

        
        
        
      

    

But how can I create a new model using $this->user

? I usually prefer to use new User;

and assign properties and then use $user->save();

. But that's pretty impossible, isn't it? I know there is a method create()

that will work in this case, for example:

$girl = $this->user->create([
    'name' => 'Jessica Hottie',
    'age'  => 21
]);

      

        
        
        
      

    

But this way I lose the ability to use the method associate()

etc.

Should I be using create()

anyway, or perhaps an even better way to handle model dependencies?