[php] Laravel $q->where() between dates

I am trying to get my cron to only get Projects that are due to recur/renew in the next 7 days to send out reminder emails. I've just found out my logic doesn't quite work.

I currently have the query:

$projects = Project::where(function($q){
    $q->where('recur_at', '>', date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time() - 604800));
    $q->where('status', '<', 5);
    $q->where('recur_cancelled', '=', 0);
});

However, I realized what I need to do is something like:

Psudo SQL:

SELECT * FROM projects WHERE recur_at > recur_at - '7 days' AND /* Other status + recurr_cancelled stuff) */

How would I do this in Laravel 4, and using the DATETIME datatype, I've only done this sort of thing using timestamps.

Update:

Managed to solve this after using the following code, Stackoverflow also helps when you can pull bits of code and look at them out of context.

$projects = Project::where(function($q){
    $q->where(DB::raw('recur_at BETWEEN DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 7 DAY) AND NOW()'));
    $q->where('status', '<', 5);
    $q->where('recur_cancelled', '=', 0);
});

Updated Question: Is there better way to do this in Laravel/Eloquent?

Update 2:

The first resolution ended up not been right after further testing, I have now resolved and tested the following solution:

$projects = Project::where(function($q){
    $q->where('recur_at', '<=', Carbon::now()->addWeek());
    $q->where('recur_at', '!=', "0000-00-00 00:00:00");
    $q->where('status', '<', 5);
    $q->where('recur_cancelled', '=', 0);
});

Didn't wan to mess with carbon. So here's my solution

$start = new \DateTime('now');
$start->modify('first day of this month');
$end = new \DateTime('now');
$end->modify('last day of this month');

$new_releases = Game::whereBetween('release', array($start, $end))->get();

Edited: Kindly note that
whereBetween('date',$start_date,$end_date)
is inclusive of the first date.

@Tom : Instead of using 'now' or 'addWeek' if we provide date in following format, it does not give correct records

$projects = Project::whereBetween('recur_at', array(new DateTime('2015-10-16'), new DateTime('2015-10-23')))
->where('status', '<', 5)
->where('recur_cancelled', '=', 0)
->get();

it gives records having date form 2015-10-16 to less than 2015-10-23. If value of recur_at is 2015-10-23 00:00:00 then only it shows that record else if it is 2015-10-23 12:00:45 then it is not shown.